IMPRESSIONS OF 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



A 



Impressions 

of 

Theodore "Roosevelt 



By 



jTdfprence F: '^Abbott 




GARDEN Ciry, N. Y., AND TORONTO 

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 

1922 




• A't 



COPYRIGHT, I919, 1922, BY 

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF 

TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, 

INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATto 

AT 

THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y. 






CI.A65 



TO 
MY FATHER 

WHOM THE MORAL LAW COMMANDS ME TO 
LOVE BUT WHOM OF MY OWN VOLITION 
I LIKE AS THE MOST DELIGHTFUL AND 
DESIRABLE OF FRIENDS AND COMPANIONS 



PREFACE 

This book makes no pretense of being a biogra- 
phy of Theodore Roosevelt. Nor will the reader 
find in it a chronological narrative of the events 
of his career. Those who wish to know these 
chronological facts are referred to his own Auto- 
biography; to the forthcoming '*Life and Letters" 
by Mr. Joseph Bucklin Bishop, who was named by 
Mr. Roosevelt as its authorized editor; to the in- 
troduction, notes, and appendices which I furnished 
ior his volume of ^'African and European Ad- 
dresses"; and to the article on Theodore Roose- 
velt which I contributed to The Eleventh Edition 
of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. 

The purpose of the present volume is to record 
some personal impressions which this great Amer- 
ican made upon me in the course of an acquain- 
tanceship of twenty-two years, during the latter 
half of which our relations were those of intimate 
association and friendship. It is with the hope of 
supplying some useful details for the final portrait 
which will be painted by the historians of the future 
that this simple, informal, and free-hand sketch is 
undertaken. 

Lawrence F. Abbott. 
The Outlook Office, 

New York, 
July 30, 1919. 



CONTENTS 

LPTES FACE 

I. Acquaintanceship 3 

How I Came to Know Theodore Roose- 
velt 
The PoUce and Good Government 
His Connection with the Outlook 
A Cabinet Meeting 
Roosevelt as a Journalist 
A "Standard Oil" Incident 

n. Politics 33 

An Hereditary Republican 
Joe Murray's Story 
Roosevelt's Relation to the Bosses 
The Nomination of Blaine 

ni. The Progressive Party 52 

*'I Am Going Down Like Dewey" 
The Return to Politics 
Why Mr. Taft Was Nominated in 1908 
The Break with Taft 
The Sudden Formation of the Progres- 
sive Party 
Roosevelt's Nomination 
*'The Irish and the Dutch" 

IV. Statesmanship 9^ 

The Need of Political Machinery- 
An Estimate of Senator Lodge 



CONTENTS ^ 

[APTBR PAGB 

A Joyous President and Ex-President 

Senatorial Conflicts 

Nationalism 

The Battle Fleet's Visit to Japan 

Political and Industrial Reform 

Conservation 

Colonial Policy 

The Russo-Japanese Peace 

The Panama Canal 

V. Foreign Affairs . . . . . . \ 42 

Remission of the Chinese Indemnity 
The Origin of the Guildhall Speech 
'*Govern-or-go" Roosevelt 
The Sorbonne Speech and Its EflTect on 

France 
How Roosevelt Helped to Save Egypt 

VL A Man of Letters ...... 160 

The Volume and Variety of Roosevelt's 

Writings 
The Pigskin Library 
Hero Tales of American History 
An Arizona Snake Dance 
An Essay on Progressivism 
An Estimate of Tolstoy 

VIL The African and European Tour 200 

Roosevelt's Desire to Get out of the 

Limelight 
An Experience in "Tipping" 
The Controversy with the Vatican 
What Fogazzaro Thought About It 



CONTENTS XI 

The Democratic King of Italy 
How Roosevelt Met the Kaiser 
Afternoon Tea with the King of Norway 
Sir Percy Girouard's Estimate of Roose- 
velt 

VHI. Roosevelt's Personal Qualities . . 264 
His Caution 
His Courage 
His Sense of Humour 
His Gentleness 

IX. The End » , 312 

The Simple Funeral 
The Hillside Grarc 

Index 319 



ROOSEVELPS CHIEF WRITINGS, EXCLUDING 
NEWSPAPER ARTICLES AND STATE PAPERS 

* African and European Addresses." New York: G. P. 

Putnam's Sons, 1910. . 
'African Game Trails." New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 
1910. 

* America and the World War." New York: C. Scribner's 

Sons, 1915. 
'American Ideals and Other Essays Social and Political.'* 
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1904. 

* A Book-lover's Holidays in the Open." New York : C. Scrib-^ 

ner's Sons, 1916. 
'Fear God and Take Your Own Part." New York: G. H. 

Doran Company, 1916. 
'The Foes of Our Own Household." New York: G. H. 

Doran Company [cop. 1917]. 
'Good Hunting in Pursuit of Big Game in the West." New 

York: Harper and Brothers, 1907. 
'Gouverneur Morris." Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and 

Company, [ist pub. 1888.] (American statesmen.) 
*The Great Adventure; Present-day Studies in American 

Nationalism. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1918. 
'History as Literature, and Other Essays." New York: 

C. Scribner's Sons, 1913. 
'Hunting Trips of a Ranchman: Sketches of Sport on the 

Northern Cattle Plains." New York: G. P. Putnam's 

Sons, 1885. [Also other editions.] 
'Life of Thomas Hart Benton." Boston: Houghton, Mifflin 

and Company, 1887. (American statesmen.) 
xiii 



xiv ROOSEVELT'S CHIEF WRITINGS 

"National Strength and International Duty." Princeton: 
Princeton University Press, 191 7 (Stafford Little lectures 
for 1917.J 

**Naval War of 1812; or, The History of the United States 
Navy During the Last War with Great Britain." New 
York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1882. 8th edition. 

"New York." New York: Longmans, Green and Company, 
1903. (Historic towns.) 

''Oliver Cromwell." New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1900. 

** Ranch Life and the Hunting-trail." New York: Century 
Company, 1896. 

*'The Rough Riders." New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1899. 

"The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses." New York: 
Century Company, 1900. 

"Theodore Roosevelt; an Autobiography." New York: 
Macmillan Company, 19x3. 

"Through the Brazilian Wilderness." New York: C. Scrib- 
ner's Sons, 1914. 

**The Wilderness Hunter." An account of the big game of 
the United States and its chase with horse, hound, and 
rifle. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1893. 

**The Winning of the West." 4 volumes. New York: G. P. 
' Putnam's Sons, 1889-96. Various editions; Standard 
library edition, 4 volumes each; Sagamore edition, 6 
volumes each. 

Roosevelt, Theodore, and Heller, Edmund. 

"Life Histories of African Game Animals." New York: 
C. Scribner's ;:)ons, 1914. 2 volumes. 



ROOSEVELT CHRONOLOGY 

Born in New York City, October 27, 1858 

Graduated from Harvard, 1880 

Elected to New York Legislature, 1881, 1882, 1883 

Republican candidate for Mayor of New York, 1886 

Civil Service Commissioner, 1889 

Police Commissioner, 1895 

Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1897 

Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel, Rough Riders, 1898 

Governor of New York, 1899-1900 

Elected Vice-President, November 4, 1900 

Became President on death of President McKinley, Septem- 
ber 14, 1901 

Elected President of the United States, 1904 

Became associated with the Outlook in spring of 1909 

Sailed for Africa in March, 1909 

Organized Progressive Party and was Progressive Party 
Candidate for President, 191 2 

Shot at Milwaukee, in October, 1912 

V^isited South America, October, 1913-June, 1914 

Resigned from the Outlook in 1914, and later became special 
contributor to the Metropolitan Magazine and the 
Kansas City Star 

In the autumn of 191 8 he had a recurrence of the jungle 
fever which he contracted in South America 

Died at Sagamore Hill, January 6, 1919 

Buried at Oyster Bay, January 8, 1919. 



XV 



INTRODUCTION 

By HERMANN HAGEDORN 

THERE have been many books written about 
Theodore Roosevelt; and there will be many 
more that will be written before even the obvious 
phases of that picturesque career will be adequately 
revealed. The historical student, the patient ex- 
l)lorer of remote sources, has, as yet, scarcely been 
heard from. He will have an entertaining as well 
as a laborious time. The sin of being tedious — 
which the late Barrett Wendell regarded as the 
dean of the cardinal sins — was never counted 
among Roosevelt's defects, except possibly by a 
none too sympathetic Congress listening to one of 
his presidential messages. He found life vastly en- 
tertaining and was constantly radiating those palpi- 
tationswhich are the effective assailants ofboredom. 
Books will be written about Roosevelt, one sus- 
pects, for a very long time to come, but though the 
library grow to enormous proportions, as seems 
probable, Lawrence Abbott's "Impressions" will 
continue to interest alike the student and the 
casual reader. The very unpretentiousness of the 
book is likely to save it when more ambitious biog- 

xvii 



xviii INTRODUCTION 

raphies are lost in dusty oblivion, for any one of a 
hundred men in any generation may write a credit- 
Able biography; but only one man could have writ- 
ten this particular book. Let history tell what it 
will, says the author in effect, but this is what I saw 
and heard and experienced. 

And the things that Mr. Abbott saw and heard, 
and the events in which he shared, happen to have 
been both important and picturesque. During 
the period between Colonel Roosevelt's emergence 
from the African jungle and the sinking of the 
Lusitania there was no one probably, outside his 
immediate family, who saw him so constantly. Ae 
Mr. Roosevelt's confidential secretary, Mr. Abbott 
\vas at his side throughout the gay adventure of th j 
Tx-President'j^ triumphal progress through Europe; 
as president of the Outlook Company, he was in a 
technical sense the *' cub-reporter's boss." He was 
a witness of the gradual integration of the Progres- 
sive Party during the year preceding its dramatic 
appearance, along with the candidate's hat, in the 
political ring; he was a fellow-fighter in the early, 
and the lonely, stages of the fight for preparedness 
and straight Americanism. 

Posterity will scarcely be able to leave this book 
unregarded; there is too much of the real Colonel 
in it. 



IMPRESSIONS OF 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



IMPRESSIONS 

OF 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

CHAPTER I 
ACQUAINTANCESHIP 

T FORMED the Roosevelt habit early. In the 
-*- autumn of 1881 Theodore Roosevelt was 
elected as a Republican to the Legislature of the 
State of New York. The story of that election is 
a characteristic and amusing one and will be re- 
ferred to in more detail in the next chapter. On 
taking his seat in the lower house, or Assembly, 
of the Legislature he became at once a prominent 
if not a national figure. He was reelected in 1882 
and 1883 and was selected by his party in the 
Legislature as its candidate for Speaker. All this 
happened when he was less than twenty-four years 
old. Naturally his success — based as it was on 
high standards and enduring, even pugnacious, 
courage, combined with human sympathy and 
democratic interest in all sorts of men, when they 



4 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

were real men — attracted the attention of hundreds 
of young Americans of his own age. They felt, 
somehow or other, that he was a symbol of what 
young America could do if it tried. 

I was living in New York at the time, working as 
a clerk in a publishing office, and the picture of 
this young college man — a graduate of Harvard 
in the Class of 1880, scarcely a year older than my- 
self, fighting for decency and honesty in politics 
at a time when American political morals were at a 
pretty low ebb — appealed to my imagination, and 
I followed his political career with intense interest. 

But I was not, I think, altogether blinded by my 
admiration, for although I was born and brought 
up a Republican of a somewhat strict sect, I voted 
for Cleveland in the presidential election of 1884 
as a protest against the forces behind Blaine, while 
Roosevelt, having opposed as strongly as he could 
the nomination of Blaine in the Republican Na- 
tional Convention, nevertheless voted for him as 
his party's regular candidate. And wisely, I think. 
For Roosevelt had deliberately chosen politics as 
his career, intended to make politics, if possible 
statesmanship, his profession; and in a two-party 
government like ours the political administrator and 
statesman must work with his party except in a crisis 
of the utmost national import. . The ordinary citi- 



ACQUAINTANCESHIP 5 

zen, on the other hand, may, and often should, use 
his vote as an independent instrument to serve as 
a check upon the unwise poUcies or unwholesome 
tendencies of the party in power. 

It is difficult to look back over a span of thirty- 
five years and recall all the details of one's feelings, 
even in the field of politics where, generally, the 
emotions, prejudices, and passions of antipathy 
or devotion are developed and manifested in their 
strongest form. But apparently my difference of 
opinion with Roosevelt in the Blaine campaign 
could not have been very deep-seated, for, in 1886, 
when he ran as Republican candidate for Mayor of 
New York City, I supported and voted for him 
with ardour. It was a ''three-cornered campaign," 
Abram Hewett being the Democratic (and success- 
ful) candidate while Henry George, the distin- 
guished apostle of the single tax doctrine, repre- 
sented the Radicals. Although Roosevelt ran 
third in the race his personality as a candidate 
made a deep impression upon me, and I remember 
that campaign as the starting point of a political 
career in which I have taken a constant and, when- 
ever I could, an active interest. Whether it was 
because this mayoralty contest was a complete 
defeat or because Roosevelt's managers made it 
one of partisanship rather than of fundamental 



6 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

principles I do not know, but the fact is that it 
made Uttle impression on him and apparently did 
not especially interest him as one of the milestones 
of his political progress, for I never heard him talk 
about it — as he was glad to do about his other 
political experiences — and he practically ignores 
it in his autobiography. 

It was in this way that the foundations were 
laid for my later personal friendship with Roosevelt 
and for my sympathy with his political philosophy. 
But I did not make his personal acquaintance until 
1895 when he was president of the Board of New 
York Police Commissioners. 

William L. Strong, a well-known and public- 
spirited merchant of New York City, had been 
elected mayor on an anti-Tammany fusion ticket 
in 1894. One of the factors in his election was the 
work done by the "Good Government Clubs" 
which were organized in various districts of New 
York City. As a result of the impetus which I 
had received from- the political work and qualities 
of Theodore Roosevelt, I entered with enthusiasm 
this Good Government Club movement and served 
as a watcher at the polls on Election Day in one of 
the toughest Tammany districts in what was 
known as the gas-house quarter on the East Side. 

The election was being carried on under a new 



ACQUAINTANCESHIP 7 

law, which I had taken the pains to study. While 
at the outset the Tammany ** heelers'* and even the 
Tammany policemen endeavoured to browbeat 
and obstruct me, I found before the night was over 
(because they became convinced that I intended 
to be fair and was unwilling to throw out ballots 
on mere technicalities) that they were appealing to 
me for help in the canvassing; finally, they accepted 
both my advice and my decisions. This experience 
convinced me that Theodore Roosevelt's doctrines 
of political management and administration were 
workable. And so, when Mayor Strong appointed 
him one of the four police commissioners and he 
became president of the Board, I watched with 
more than ordinary interest his endeavours to make 
the police system of the city an honest and effective 
one. 

One day Jacob Riis — at that time a representa- 
tive of, I think, the Evening Sun at Police Head- 
quarters — came into my office, when I told him 
of an experience that I had had with a drunken 
police officer, whose number I had taken the pre- 
caution of noting in my memorandum book. Riis 
asked me whether I had any objection to his telling 
the story to Roosevelt. On my assent he evidently 
related the incident to the new commissioner with 
all the colour and picturesqueness that character- 



8 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

ized his work as a writer. For, in a day or two he 
came back and said that Commissioner Roosevelt 
wanted me to come down to Police Headquarters 
and make a complaint against the disreputable 
policeman. I went down, was ushered into Mr. 
Roosevelt's presence, and there met him for the 
first time. He had in the room to meet me the 
policeman whose number I had given to Mr. Riis. 
I recognized and identified the man and, at Mr. 
Roosevelt's request, made the proper complaint. 
The affair resulted in a police trial at which one of 
Mr. Roosevelt's colleagues. Commissioner Parker, 
presided. Commissioner Parker was not in sym^ 
pathy with Mr. Roosevelt's efforts to take the 
police force out of corrupt politics, and although 
he was superficially courteous he made the day 
that I spent in the trial room one of the most un- 
comfortable of my life. What finally was the dis- 
position of the case I do not know, for Commis- 
sioner Parker suspended judgment at the conclu- 
sion of the trial. But I have never regretted that 
day, miserable though it was, because it proved to 
be the beginning of an acquaintanceship with 
Theodore Roosevelt which later became an intimate 
one and developed into what was, to me, a deep 
and delightful friendship. 

One of the most readable and entertaining chap- 



ACQUAINTANCESHIP 9 

ters of Mr. Roosevelt's autobiography is his ac- 
count of his work as Police Commissioner. He not 
only tells of some of his difficulties but relates 
stories of particular officers, like those of Otto 
Raphael and Captain Bourke that are as lively and 
as absorbing as any novel. His final estimate of 
his work with the police is as follows: 



Let me again say that when men tell me that the police 
are irredeemably bad I remember scores and hundreds of 
cases Hke this of Bourke, like the case I have already men- 
tioned of Raphael, like the other cases I have given abovcr 
It is useless to tell me that these men are bad. They are 
naturally first-rate men. There are no better men any- 
where than the men of the New York Police force; and when 
they go bad it is because the system is WTong, and because 
they are not given the chance to do the good work they can 
do and would rather do. I never coddled these men. I 
punished them severely w^henever I thought their conduct 
required it. All I did was to try to be just; to reward them 
when they did well; in short, to act squarely by them. I 
believe that, as a whole, they liked me. When, in 191 2, I 
ran for President on the Progressive ticket, I received a num- 
ber of unsigned letters inclosing sums of money for the cam- 
paign. One of these inclosed twenty dollars. The writer, 
who did not give his name, said that he was a policeman, that 
I had once had him before me on charges, and had fined him 
twenty dollars; that, as a matter of fact, he had not com- 
mitted the offense for which I fined him, but that the evidence 
was such that he did not wonder that I had been misled, and 
never blamed me for it, because I had acted squarely and had 
^iven honest and decent men a chance in the Police Depart 
rnent; and that now he inclosed a twenty-dollar bill, the 



lo IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

amount of the fine inflicted on him so many years before. 
I have always wished I knew who the man was. 

It was through his work as police commissioner 
that I first began to realize Theodore Roosevelt's 
deep-seated human sympathy and his understand- 
ing of human character. He was an indefatigable 
worker then as he was in every phase of his life. 
He was not too busy to ask me, a citizen unknown 
to him and holding no public position, to come 
down and make a complaint which might help in 
the work he was trying to do. Since his death, an 
old boyhood friend of mine, a practising physician 
In New York City, Dr. Matthew Beattle, has sent 
me fifteen letters which Commissioner Roosevelt 
wrote to him between August, 1895, and December, 
1896. They are only a few of a much larger num- 
ber, nearly forty in all. 

Dr. Beattle gives me the following interesting 
account of his experiences with Mr. Roosevelt as 
to police reform: 

Mr. Roosevelt had been in office only a few days when I 
called on him at Police Headquarters and told him that 

No. and No. on the block on which I lived were, 

and had been for a long time, houses of ill fame. Quick as a 
flash he replied with this question: ''Doctor, will you wait 
here until I get 3^our police captain?" Of course I said 

"yes." Immediately Captain S. of the West Street 

station was summoned. He was hardly seated and informed 



ACQUAINTANCESHIP n 

of my complaint when Mr. Roosevelt walked up rather close 
to him and said, with great determination: "Captain, I will 
give you just five days to close those three houses." 

In three days all three houses became vacant and were 
respectable boarding houses for the following sixteen years 
to my personal knowledge. 

A druggist, living about half a mile from my office, wrote 
to me asking me to use my influence with Police Commissioner 
Roosevelt to curb or punish a drunken policeman, named 

M , who often insulted women in his drug store and on 

the near-by streets. I presented the case to Mr. Roosevelt 
who at once asked me to aid him in a little detective work to 

catch officer M . I was glad to do so, and secured the 

help of Professor Harry Cushing, then of Columbia College, 

who lived in my house. . . . M was found guilty 

of being off post and fined on that count. Cushing and 
I. however, had not proved the character of the house of ill 
fame which we saw him enter. Therefore, he could not be 
dismissed from the /orce on our complaint, but I was in- 
formed that he was dismissed two weeks after the trial, on 
another charge. 

Two of these letters to Dr. Beattie are typical of 
Mr. Roosevelt's methods. The first illustrates the 
directness with which he went to the point: 

Dear Dr. Beattie: 

I am very doubtful indeed about the captain in question, 
but keep a close eye on him. 
As to your questions: 
I. Continue to make reports to me. 
II. Grant the request. 
JII. Carry a pistol and apply for a permit to the Chief. 

Very truly yours, 

Theodore Roosevelt. 



12 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

The second letter illustrates his fairmindedness. 

The Captain S who had been summoned to 

Mr. Roosevelt's office, on Dr. Beattie's complaint, 
to close three disorderly houses apparently did his 
duty so well, after he found that he had a real 
backer in the new commissioner, that he brought 
down on his head the wrath of the powers of cor- 
ruption. When Mr. Roosevelt found that he 
could be relied upon for honest work he supported 
him, as will be seen from the second letter: 

December 7, 1896. 
My dear Dr. Beattie: 

Your letter gave me sincere pleasure. I have reason to 

believe that Captain S has been persecuted, not for his 

failings, but for his efficiency, and especially because of the 
way he has acted in support of you and your representatives 
— conduct that has cost him much bitter hostility. I trust 
you will be wiHing to appear as a witness to testify in his 

behalf if he is put on trial. 

Sincerely yours, 
Theodore Roosevelt. 

Beginning with his police commissionership I 
came into contact with Mr. Roosevelt occasionally, 
but it was not until he was about to leave the 
White House that the real association began upon 
which these impressions are based. 

Not long after Mr. Roosevelt's election to the 
Presidency in 1904 he announced that he would not 
be a candidate for a second consecutive term. In 



ACQUAINTANCESHIP 13 

the summer of 1905 I began to turn over in my 
ow n mind one day what Mr. Roosevelt would do 
when he left the Presidency. It seemed to me that 
after he retired from official life he must have some 
organized means of expressing his views and exert- 
ing his influence on public questions. He was not 
a lawyer by profession, as so many other ex-Presi- 
dents have been, and he could not go into active in- 
dustrial or financial business. That had been tried 
by one ex-President, General Grant, with disastrous 
consequences. Since Mr. Roosevelt was not only a 
statesman but a man of letters, I wondered whether 
some form of journalism in which he could take 
part in discussions on social, economic, and poli- 
tical questions would not be appropriate. Would 
it be possible to have him associate himself with 
the Outlook? With this idea in mind, I worked 
out a plan — coining the phrase '* contributing 
editor'' — and it was put before him. How he met 
it is described in a letter to me, dated March 5, 
1 19 1 7, from which I quote: 

It was your father and you yourself who personally brought 
to my attention the idea of my joining the Outlook as a con- 
tributing editor. This was in the White House at the be- 
ginning of the year 1906. I spoke of it again with your 
f father that summer and in the following year, but I came to 
no definite decision until the spring or early summer of 1908, 
when you came to see me at Sagamore Hill, and I agreed 



14 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

definitely to go in with you on practically the basis on which 
I afterward did go in. It was your father who was the de- 
cisive factor in getting me to accept. I might have accepted 
your request alone; but I have a peculiar feeling for your 
father. I regard him and have long regarded him as a man 
who in a way stands entirely apart from all others in our 
national life, and, if the expression does not seem exagger- 
ated, my regard for him has in it a little of that feeling of 
reverence which is perhaps the finest feeling an old man can 
inspire in younger men — even when these younger men, like 
myself, become old men! I felt honoured to be associated 
with him, and I was also very glad to be associated with the 
rest of you. 

The result of these negotiations was that on the 
yth of November, 1908, the Outlook was able to 
announce that '*on and after the 5th of March, 
1909, Theodore Roosevelt will be associated with 
the Outlook's editorial staff as special Contributing 
Editor." From that day until June, 1914, he was 
in a very real sense a member of our staff. He 
made his office with us and he regularly attended 
our weekly editorial conferences. 

According to our mutual agreement he was to 
be free to express his own views over his own name 
and the Outlook was equally at liberty to state its 
opinion even when it varied from his on public 
questions. We rarely differed, but when we did 
he accepted the difference of opinion with perfect 
loyalty to the understanding which was the basis 
of our joint work. He believed in what he called 



I ACQUAINTANCESHIP 15 

''team-work," and practised his belief. He lis- 
tened to the views of his colleagues, and often modi- 
fied his own as a result of the interchange of opin- 
ion. He never wrote an article that he did not, 
before publication, submit to one of us, and he al- 
most invariably accepted our suggestions, some- 
times with regard to verbal expressions and some- 
times with regard to change of ideas or views of the 
article. I do not mean to give the impression that 
he altered his mind frequently. On matters of 
principle he could be as fixed as adamant. But 
in methods of putting a principle into effect he 
habitually sought counsel and was eager to adopt 
suggestions. Not only did he contribute to our 
pages articles over his own name, but his wide 
experience, his comprehensive knowledge of men 
and affairs, and his unique ability as an interpreter 
of political and social movements found expression 
in our own editorials through the comments and 
suggestions which he made at the weekly confer- 
ences. 

One of the first results of his prospective connection 
with the Outlook was that I had the very unusual, if 
not the unique, experience of attending a semi- 
official cabinet meeting in Washington. Mr. Taft 
was running for the Presidency against Mr. Bryan, 
and in the latter part of the summer of 1908 there 



1 6 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

was great anxiety among the Republican managers 
lest Mr. Bryan might be elected on the anti- 
corporation ** trust-busting" issue. He was, it is 
true, defeated by so large a majority that these 
anxieties now seem hardly credible, but at the 
time they were very real. Governor Haskell of 
Oklahoma was the treasurer of the National Demo- 
cratic Committee and Mr. Bryan's right-hand man 
in managing his campaign. The Outlook had 
learned that the university professors and educa- 
tors of Oklahoma were very much upset by Gover- 
nor Haskell's management of the educational sys- 
tem of that state. They felt that he was trying 
to prostitute it to partisan political ends. During 
a visit which my father had made to the State of 
Oklahoma shortly before the campaign of 1908 he 
was urged to defend in the Outlook the university 
and schools of Oklahoma against the political 
machinations of Governor Haskell. My father was 
very glad to do this and the Outlook^ supported 
by documents and other proof, took up the issue 
with some vigour. For when political bosses en- 
deavour to turn a state educational system into a 
political machine they are guilty of perhaps the 
worst form of political corruption. To debauch 
the public schools in this way is to pollute the very 
springs of our national life. Mr. Roosevelt knew 



ACQUAINTANCESHIP 17 

and approved of the part which the Outlook had 
been taking in this controversy. 

One September Saturday afternoon, while play- 
ing golf at my summer home on the Hudson about 
fifty miles from New York, the following telegram 
was repeated to me by telephone from my oflSce in 
the city: 

The White House, Washington, September 26, 1908. 
Lawrence F. Abbott 
The Outlook 
New York City 
Letter received. If you want to write on Haskell I have 
many records to show you which you ought to see. Come 
on to see me this evening or to-morrow (Sunday) afternoon 
or evening. Don^t forget the expression used by one of the 
Oklahoma senators in championing Haskell that Haskell 
is merely Bryanism in action. 

Theodore Roosevelt. 

In reply I telegraphed that I would report at 
the White House the next morning, Sunday, at 
nine o'clock. Reluctantly I left my game of golf, 
hastily packed a bag, and got a train for New York 
which enabled me to take the midnight express 
over to Washington. 

When I presented my card at nine o'clock at the 
White House the doorman was a little dubious, 
owing to the very unusual hour of the call, but it 
was sent to the President who summoned me to 
join him. I found him at breakfast with Mrs. 



1 8 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Roosevelt at a small round table on the back 
verandah overlooking the pleasant garden with 
the towering Washington Monument in the dis- 
tance. He explained that he and Mrs. Roosevelt 
were accustomed to breakfast alone on Sunday 
mornings, without even other members of the 
family, because in this way they could take one 
of the very few opportunities they had for an 
hour of uninterrupted companionship. 

Mr. Roosevelt informed me that he was in 
the process of an exchange of open letters with 
Mr. Bryan on issues of the campaign; that he had 
written the first one; that Mr. Bryan had replied; 
and that he was about to write his second letter 
that afternoon. With the astute wisdom which he 
showed in all practical matters, Mr. Roosevelt had 
picked out the Monday morning newspapers as 
the medium for his open letters. Daily newspaper 
editors are always glad to get some striking feature 
for Monday morning since the Sunday issue has 
used up everything of sensational value in hand. 

At the President's Invitation I returned to take 
luncheon with him and afterward went up into his 
study, where a table was covered with documents 
and records of all kinds regarding the campaign. 
At three o'clock those members of the Cabinet 
who were then in Washington came to the room by I 



ACQUAINTANCESHIP 19 

appointment and Mr. Roosevelt began to dictate 
the open letter to Bryan, walking up and down the 
room as he talked to the stenographer in a char- 
acteristic fashion. Finally he came to a criticism of 
Mr. Bryan himself and was making the application 
of this criticism somewhat personal and vigor- 
ous, whereupon a member of the Cabinet remarked : 
" Mr. President, it does not seem to me wise to make 
a personal attack upon Mr. Bryan and certainly 
not upon Mr. Bryan's integrity, for such an attack, 
in my judgment, would react in his favour." Mr. 
Roosevelt stopped and answered: "Mr. Secre- 
tary, I want to dictate this letter based on these 
documents and facts before me with perfect free- 
dom of expression. I want you to listen and form 
your own judgment and to come back at nine 
o'clock this evening prepared to make any sug- 
gestions or modifications that occur to you." He 
then went on with his dictation and finished the 
article or open letter, which I should imagine would 
have taken the space of a column and a half or two 
columns of a daily newspaper. At the conclusion of 
the session which was attended by Secretary Cortel- 
you of the Treasury, Secretary Straus of the Depart- 
ment of Commerce and Labour, Secretary Meyer of 
the Navy, and, I think, one other member of the 
Cabinet whose name I cannot recall (these gentle- 



20 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

men being the only members of the Cabinet in town 
at the time) — I went back to my hotel much im- 
pressed with the fact that I had been a spectator of 
what was at least an informal Cabinet meeting in ac- 
tion. I was also impressed with the conviction that 
the secretary who raised the question about a person- 
al criticism of Mr. Bryan w^as right in his judgment; 
and yet I thought I understood, from my conver- 
sations with him, Mr. Roosevelt's own point of view. 
I therefore wrote, and sent to the White House by 
special messenger, a note something like this: 

My Dear Mr. President: 

May I venture to say that it seems to me that Secretary 

was right in deprecating anything that appears like an 

attack upon Mr. Bryan's personal integrity, but on the other 
hand I do not understand that you desire to make such an I 
attack. Is it not your purpose to point out that Mr. Bryan's , 
close association with Governor Haskell, whose methods have | 
been dishonourable, shows not a lack of honour but a lack of | 
wisdom and sound judgment. What you wish to say to i 
the American people, as I understand you, is that if Mr. i 
Bryan can make so lamentable an error of judgment as to I 
appoint a political spoilsman like Governor Haskell as | 
his right-hand man and lieutenant in this campaign, what 
guarantee have they that he will not, if elected President, 
make a similar mistake of judgment in appointing the mem- 
bers of his Cabinet and other officers of the Government ? 

Five minutes after this note had gone I would 
have given a good-sized cheque to get it back. 



ACQUAINTANCESHIP 21 

"What have I done?" I said to myself. 'With 
only a limited acquaintance with the President, 
I have ventured to send him a letter of advice 
in a matter in which his Cabinet are his proper 
advisers! He is reported to carry 'a big stick.' 
What will happen to me when I go back to him this 
evening ?" For he had invited me to return at nine 
o'clock to be present when the letter was revised. 

I dined with Secretary Meyer and went back to 
the White House at nine o'clock. As I entered the 
little study in which this piece of work was done 
I literally trembled in my shoes. The President 
was sitting at his desk, in a swivel chair, with his 
back to the door. He swung around, greeted 
Secretary Meyer, said good evening to me, and 
added: ''Thank you for your note, Abbott. I was 
glad to get it. You are right. I shall modify the 
passage about Mr. Bryan accordingly." 

He then asked the three or four members of the 
Cabinet who had heard him dictate the letter to sit 
down, and requested each one to read the type- 
written transcript of the dictation, sheet by sheet, 
and to make their criticisms. I was also asked 
to read the pages as they left the hands of the last 
Cabinet officer. Suggested modifications were 
freely made by the Cabinet members (I, of 
course, was merely a silent observer) and were 



22 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

incorporated by Mr. Roosevelt with his own pen, 
until some of the pages were black with interline- 
ation. Each revised page was sent out to be 
freshly copied, brought in for the President's final 
vise, and then sent to the telegraph office downstairs 
for immediate transmission through the Associated 
Press. Every suggestion, with one exception, was | 
adopted by Mr. Roosevelt. I think it was Mr. 
Straus who asked for the modification of one sen- 
tence or phrase on the ground that it was a little too 
severe. The President turned to him and said: **No, 
Mr. Secretary, I think it should stand as it is. You 
must remember that this is a poster, not an etching !" 
This incident seems to me to be worth recording 
somewhat fully because it illustrates what was one 
of Roosevelt's striking characteristics and yet a 
characteristic which the general public, I think, 
was not aware of. I mean his constant practice of 
seeking the facts and complete information about a 
given matter from any source that he thought 
would be serviceable. It was this motive that led 
him to summon me— a comparatively unknown 
man, holding no public or cabinet position — that we 
might be able mutually to help each other in giv- 
ing the public the facts about Governor Haskell. 
From this incident the reader will also get the 
impression, and I think it is the correct impres- 



ACQUAINTANCESHIP 23 

sion, that Mr. Roosevelt in all his public acts 
sought advice and followed suggestions. In this 
instance he summoned those members of his 
Cabinet who were available, had them give per- 
sonally and collectively three or four hours' con- 
sideration to a newspaper-campaign letter, and 
invited and adopted their modifications and advice. 
It was these qualities of cooperation which made 
his public career on its human side so preeminently 
successful, and they have always seemed to me to 
be important traits of his character — so important 
that I shall recur to them more than once as I 
proceed. 

Roosevelt was not only a staunch advocate of 
the doctrine of military preparedness — to which, 
by the way, he gave expression at the age of twenty- 
two in his ''Naval History of the War of 1812/' 
referred to more fully in a later chapter — but prac- 
tised preparedness in every activity of his life. Hrs 
desk was always clear, although he wrote more 
letters probably than any other man of his time. 
His articles were always finished on the day and 
the hour when they were promised — often a little 
beforehand. He pressed his work instead of being 
pressed by it, and was never confused or w^orried 
by an accumulation of duties. He was the busiest 
man I ever knew, and yet he never seemed to be 



24 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

hurried. In other words, he was a remarkable 
executive, partly because he knew how to handle 
men and get them to work, but very largely, I 
think, because he practised preparedness. 

For example, he took with him into the African 
wilderness a supply of stationery, with sheets of 
carbon paper like those that are used on the ordi- 
nary typewriter, and indelible pencils, and wrote 
in duplicate by means of the carbon paper, under 
what to most men would have been impossible 
conditions, some of his book, '* African Game 
Trails," and at least one of the important addresses 
that he delivered in Europe. He was distinctly 
what some of my Yankee forbears would have 
called ''forehanded." 

A significant instance of this forehandedness was 
his first editorial act as a member of the staff of 
the Outlook. He relinquished the Presidency on 
March 4, 1909, and sailed for Africa on March 23 rd. 
In characteristic fashion, he instantly turned from 
the work of President to that of editor. Indeed, 
while still President he had written half a dozen 
editorial articles and had them all ready for pub- 
lication. Wednesday, March loth, was his in- 
auguration day as one of the editorial board. 
When it came his turn to suggest a topic for edito- 
rial consideration he said: "I wonder whether 



ACQUAINTANCESHIP 25 

you would be willing to tell the story of the 
Government's prosecution of the Sugar Trust 
for its criminal attempt to evade paying cus- 
toms duties? The Government, in the face of 
incredible difficulties, has won its case, and the 
Sugar Trust has been convicted of smuggling sugar 
by the daily use of a fraudulent device extending 
over a period of some years. Unfortunately, for 
mysterious reasons which it is not wholly difficult 
to explain, the New York daily press has practically 
ignored the Government's victory and its dramatic 
incidents, and the public therefore does not know 
all it should about the crime, and the success of 
the Government in ferreting it out and punishing 
it. There may be good reasons w^hy you do not 
want to go into this matter, but if you do I shall 
be glad to see that you are supplied wdth all the 
facts in the case." 

Of course we instantly said that we should be 
glad to take the matter up and would do all we 
could, with his help and direction, to make the case 
public. With a smile he responded: ''I rather 
thought that would be your decision, and so I have 
taken the liberty of asking United States District 
Attorney Stimson and his assistant, Mr. Denison, 
to come here this morning; they are now outside in 
the reception room with a large bag full of docu- 



26 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

ments and other interesting pieces of evidence 
that we used in the trial." 

Mr. Stimson and Mr. Denison were instantly 
invited to ioin us, and they related one of the most 
dramatic stories of fraud and prosecution that I 
have ever listened to. They had with them some 
of the incredibly ingenious and delicate mechanical 
devices which the Sugar Trust had used in making 
the scales on the pier where the sugar was unloaded 
register false weights. The result of this story led 
us to take the matter up with care, and Mr. Harold 
J. Rowland, of our editorial staff, wrote an article — 
after a very careful study of the case, aided by both 
Mr. Stimson and Mr. Denison — entitled: ''The 
Case of the Seventeen Holes." It was published 
in the Outlook a month later, and created some- 
thing of a sensation. It may be added that Mr. 
Stimson later became Secretary of War in the 
Cabinet of President Taft; and Mr. Denison be- 
came Secretary of the Interior of the Philippine 
Islands and member of the Philippine Commission. 

It seems worth while to make these brief records 
of Mr. Roosevelt's essays in journalism because 
probably it was the first time in the history of the 
United States that an ex-President had chosen 
journalism as his professional career on returning 
to private life. After leaving the Outlook in 1914, 



ACQUAINTANCESHIP 27 

Mr. Roosevelt became editorially associated with 
the Metropolitan Magazine, and, still later, an 
editorial contributor to the Kansas City Star. 
Thus he was engaged in active journalism for ten 
years from the time he ceased to be President in 
1909 until his death. Indeed, he wrote editorials 
for the Kansas City Star almost up to the very 
hour of his death, for one of his last acts, the 
evening before he suddenly and unexpectedly 
passed away, was to correct the proof of a Star 
editorial. His success as a journalist is only an- 
other striking illustration of his almost unmatched 
versatility. Historians say that he might have 
been a historian; biologists and zoologists, that he 
might have been a scientific naturalist; soldiers, that 
he would have made a great professional soldier. It 
is equally clear that if the environment of his early 
life had so influenced him he might have become a 
great newspaper editor. He had the instinct for 
news and the faculty for interesting the public in it. 
He also had what is more important, but too often 
lost sight of in modern journalism: definite views 
as to the moral standards which ought to apply 
to the trade or profession of newspaper men as 
rigorously as the ethics of the medical profes- 
sion or the obligations of the Hippocratic oath 
apply to doctors. In his first editorial he used 



28 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

these words of one of the banes of American 
newspaper life: 

Yellow journalism deifies the cult of the mendacious, 
the sensational, and the inane, and, throughout its wide 
but vapid field, does as much to vulgarize and degrade 
the popular taste, to weaken the popular character, and to 
dull the edge of the popular conscience, as any influence under 
which the country can suflFer. These men sneer at the very 
idea of paying heed to the dictates of a sound morality; as 
one of their number has cynically put it, they are concerned 
merely with selling the public whatever the public will buy — 
a theory of conduct which would justify the existence of every 
keeper of an opium den, of every foul creature who ministers 
to the vices of mankind. 

To these words he added the comment upon his 
new editorial associates that ^*it is perhaps not 
especially to their credit that they have avoided 
this pit; fortunately they are so constituted that 
it is a simple impossibility for them to fall into it." 
He defined his journalistic creed as follows: '*It 
is not given to humanity never to err"; but the 
right-minded editor *' makes a resolute effort to 
find out what the facts actually are before passing 
judgment." He ''believes that things in this 
world can be made better," but he ''does not in- 
dorse quixotic movements which would merely 
leave things worse." He "feels a peculiar desire 
to do all that can be done for the poor and the op- 



ACQUAINTANCESHIP 29 

pressed, and to help upward those struggUng to 
better themselves*'; but he "has no sympath}^ 
with moral weakness or sentimentality." All 
that he can he ''does and will do for the cause of 
labour;'' but he "will in no shape or way condone 
violence or disorder." He "stands for the rights 
of property, and therefore against the abuses of 
property." He "believes in a wise individualism, 
and in encouragement of individual initiative; 
and therefore all the more ... in using the 
collective force of the whole people to do what, but 
for the use of that collective force, must be left 
undone." 

It may not be inappropriate to conclude this 
chapter of journalistic reminiscences with one of 
the amusing incidents connected with Mr. Roose- 
velt's new journalistic venture; I say "amusing," 
although at the time it was vexatious and dis- 
turbing. 

I The late James Stillman, one of the foremost rail- 
way financiers and bankers of the United States, 
had been for more than thirty years a personal 
friend as well as a neighbour of my father and 
had aided him in the purchase of the journal which 
later became the Outlook. The result was that 
he was a stockholder in the Outlook Company 
although he owned less than a tenth interest. 



30 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

In becoming a stockholder he had simply performed 
a generous act for a personal friend and he had 
never in any way attempted to influence the policy 
of the paper. He had never even attended a 
stockholders' meeting either in person or by proxy. 
He was in 1909 closely associated with the Stand- 
ard Oil Company both through family and finan- 
cial connections. A New York daily newspaper 
in search of a sensation announced that Mr. Still- 
man was a stockholder of the Outlook and that, 
therefore, Mr. Roosevelt had connected himself 
with a journal controlled by the Standard Oil 
Company. In view of Mr. Roosevelt's attitude at 
that time toward the great corporations and the pro- 
ceedings at law which his administration had in- 
stituted against the Standard Oil Company, the 
newspapers took this piece of gossip up and it 
created a lively though temporary furore. The 
facts were frankly stated in the pages of the Out- 
look^ and Mr. Roosevelt himself, in November, 
1908, made the following statement through the 
public press: 

The President has not the slightest concern with the ques- 
tion as to who are the stockholders of the Outlook. His 
concern is with the general policy of the paper, which is and 
has been consistently admirable in every respect. The 
President will be responsible only for what he himself writes; 



ACQUAINTANCESHIP 3 1 

and his probable future attitude must be judged by his action 
in the past. 



Referring to this episode President ' Roosevelt 
wrote me from the White House on November 14, 
1908: 



^ You need not be in the least sorry. I was not caused the 
slightest annoyance by the statement about the Standard 
Oil control of the paper. On the contrary, the only effect 
was to give the heartiest enjoyment to the entire Cabinet at 
the Cabinet meeting — and the Cabinet meetings are rarely 
melancholy anyhow! I wanted very much to issue a state- 
ment to the effect that if the Standard Oil really controlled 
the Outlook, I thought they must have experienced a change 
of heart when they hired me to write editorials for it! But 
I thought it was not worth while. Last summer your father 
told me substantially what you tell me now, namely, that 
. . . Mr. Stillman who was an old friend and neighbour 
. . . owned less than a tenth of the stock, and never 
made any effort to influence the course of the paper. It was 
on the tip of my tongue to say that that was self-evident 
from all I had seen in the paper, but I did not say so because 
I was afraid your dear father might think I was speaking 
a little harshly of Mr. Stillman. Let me say that I have 
never heard anything to Mr. Stillman's discredit. 



The spirit of this note is one that actuated Theo- 
dore Roosevelt in all his journalistic relations. 
He was quick to see the good in every man and 
while in controversy he often "got mad, " to use 
the vivid expression of boyhood, he never stayed 



32 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

mad nor cherished resentments of any kind. He 
was always ready to renew friendly relations with 
an antagonist unless they had been broken be- 
cause of some fundamental vicious streak in his 
opponent which could not be remedied by any kind 
of readjustment. 



CHAPTER II 
POLITICS 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT was born into the 
Republican party as inevitably as Woodrow 
Wilson was born a Democrat, a fact which may 
well arouse some curious and interesting specula- 
tion about the influence of birth and heredity upon 
statesmanship and national history. If Roose- 
velt's father had been a Southerner, as his mother 
was, and Theodore had been born at ''Roswell," 
the maternal family homestead in Georgia, it is 
quite possible, perhaps even probable, that he 
would have become a member of the Democratic 
party. But his ancestry and surroundings in New 
York being what they were, it was as natural for 
him to attach himself to the Republican party as 
it was to go to Harvard College. In fact, in his 
autobiography he intimates as much himself in 
these words: 

i • 

" At that day, in 1880, a young man of my bringing up and 
convictions could join only the Republican party, and join it 
I accordingly did. It was no simple thing to join it then. 
That was long before the era of ballot reform and the control 

33 



34 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

of primaries; long before the era when we realized that the 
Government must take o£icial notice of the deeds and acts 
of party organizations. The party was still treated as a pri- 
vate corporation, and in each district the organization formed 
a kind of social and political club. A man had to be regularly 
proposed for and elected into this club, just as into any other 
club. As a friend of mine picturesquely phrased it, I *'had 
to break into the organization with a jimmy." 

Had Theodore Roosevelt become a scientific 
naturalist, as Father Zahm thinks he might have, 
or a historian and man of letters, as Brander 
Matthews almost wishes he had, he would doubt- 
less have habitually voted the Republican ticket 
although his energies would never have been de- 
voted to political administration. But since his 
career was that of a statesman it is interesting to 
know how it happened that, at twenty-two years 
of age, he became a Republican office-holder and 
thus entered upon an active political life. 

Various people have claimed the honour of first 
suggesting his name as a Republican candidate for 
the New York Legislature. The matter, however, 
is easily settled on Theodore Roosevelt's own au- 
thority. He says that the man who launched him 
into practical politics was Joe Murray, a Republican 
leader — "lesser captain" Mr. Roosevelt calls him 
— in the twenty-first district Republican Associa- 
tion in the City of New York. In one of the most 



POLITICS 35 

entertaining and readable chapters of his auto- 
biography Mr. Roosevelt tells the story and testi- 
fies to his respect and friendship for Joe Murray. 
Joe Murray's version of this important episode in 
the life of the future President of the United States 
has never yet, so far as I know, been publicly told, 
and I am fortunate in being able to reproduce it 
here. I came into possession of the story, which 
I shall proceed to relate in Mr. Murray's own 
words, in this way. 

In 1910, when Theodore Roosevelt returned from 
his memorable trip through Africa and Europe, he 
was appealed to by a group of younger men in the 
Republican party to aid them in attempting to 
wrest the party control from the hands of the so- 
called '*01d Guard." He somewhat reluctantly 
consented, as will appear hereafter, and went to 
the State Republican Convention at Saratoga as 
an ordinary delegate from Nassau County. I hap- 
pened to be elected to the same convention as an 
alternate delegate from my own county, Orange. I 
went from New York to Saratoga in company with 
Mr. Roosevelt. On the train he introduced me to 
a strong, vigorous, ruddy-faced man of about sixty, 
saying: '*I want you to know my friend, Joe Mur- 
ray. He started me in politics. Take him into the 
smoking room and get him to tell you the story." 



36 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Whereupon Murray and I went into the smoking 
compartment of the parlour car and he told me in a 
most entertaining fashion how he happened in 
1 88 1 to pick Theodore Roosevelt as a candidate 
for the Legislature. The main points and the 
agreeable flavour of Joe Murray's story have re- 
mained with me ever since. But in order to be ver- 
bally accurate I got him to come to my office not 
long after Mr. Roosevelt's death and tell me the 
story again. I am sure that Mr. Murray will not 
object to my giving his colloquial and intimate 
language just as it fell from his lips, for it consti- 
tutes, I think, a human document of both charm 
and importance in the record of Theodore Roose- 
velt's political career. Incidentally, it reveals 
some of the methods of American politics at the 
time when Roosevelt was getting his first Impres- 
sions of the need of social, industrial, and political 
reforms. This is the story, verbatim et literatim^ 
taken down stenographlcally as Joe Murray told 
me how he first met young Roosevelt : 

JOE Murray's story 

In 1 88 1 Jake Hess was the leader in the Republican Twenty- 
first Assembly District organization of this city, the boun- 
daries of which were the north side of Fortieth Street, the 
south side of Fifty-ninth Street, the east side of Seventh 
Avenue, and the west side of Lexington Avenue. Its head- 



POLITICS 37 

quarters were Morton Hall at Fifty-ninth Street and Fifth 
Avenue, on the southeast corner. At that time a hotel had 
been started there by Tweed, but was never completed. The 
iron frame-work was partitioned off, and our organization* 
occupied a portion of it, with stores underneath. The por- 
tion which we occupied was known as Morton Hall. 

In those days I believed in the organization and I do now 
to a very large extent, but I did not think it was infallible. 
It makes mistakes. I believe to keep the party strong it 
is necessary to keep it pure. 

In 1 88 1, after the district was portioned off, we elected 
a man for the Legislature. The newspapers made a rather 
severe attack on him, and Major Bullard, who was one of the 
leaders in our organization, and myself had an idea that if he 
was renominated it would be necessary for us to have a 
defensive campaign, which is not a good thing for a Republican 
candidate. This Assemblyman had supported Piatt and 
Conkling, the state bosses, in the previous Legislature, and 
they wanted him renominated, if he desired it, as a reward 
for his loyalty. Major Bullard and myself did not think he 
could be elected, and we considered that it would be a disaster 
to the Republican party to have the Twenty-first District go 
Democratic. Jake Hess wanted to follow the wishes of the 
State bosses, Piatt and Conkling, and intended to nominate 
this man even if he couldn't be elected. 

Hess was at that time one of the Commissioners of Chari- 
ties and Corrections, and was of course a very influential 
man in the party, while I was more or less insignificant com- 
pared to him. He and Major Bullard and I got together to 
arrange a ticket for the coming primaries. 

What Hess and Bullard and myself had to do was to pick 
out the delegates to be elected to the conventions, including 
the Assembly Convention which was going to nominate our 
candidate from the district. Hess wanted me as a delegate 
to the Congressional Convention and also to the Senatorial 
Convention because I was familiar with the routine: but I 



38 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

wanted, although I did not say so, to have a part in the 
Assembly Convention in order to prevent the renomination 
of this weak candidate that I have already spoken of. I as- 
'sented to Hess's wishes and was a delegate, but I paid no 
attention to either the Senatorial or the Congressional Con- 
vention. Of course we knew beforehand that William Wal- 
dorf Astor was to be our Congressional candidate. What I 
wanted to give my special attention to was the Assembly 
Convention, although I was not a regular delegate. As a 
matter of fact, while I was not a delegate to the Assembly 
Convention, Major Bullard and I named fifteen out of the 
twenty-five delegates to this convention among our personal 
friends on whom we could depend. 

Major Bullard, like myself, was a veteran of the Civil War. 
He and I went down to see Hess at the office of the Commis- 
sioner of Charities on Third Avenue, and there we met the 
candidate who represented the district the year previous 
and was seeking renomination. We took a walk over to the 
Sinclair House to get a drink. Bullard and Hess walked 
ahead, the Assemblyman and I were behind them. On the 
way over the Assemblyman says to me: "Joe, don't you t!.ink 
I ought to get a larger vote this year than I did a year arc?" 
I says: *' For what?" He says: ''For the Assembly, of coarse. 
You know I am better known now than I was then." I says: 
"Well, you're certainly better known. The fact of it is that 
anybody who knows you wouldn't vote for you." He says: 
"You'd vote for me, wouldn't you?" "Billy," I says, "I 
know a trick or two better than that. I wouldn't do any- 
thing of the kind." 

So after we got to the bar-room he was particularly anxious 
to get away from me in order to talk to Hess. (Up to this 
time Hess knew nothing about this or about the position 
which Bullard and I were taking. But the delegates had 
been picked and he could not do anything.) After awhile, 
however, the prospective candidate got away. He went 
over to Hess, and after talking with him a very short time I 



POLITICS 39 

saw Hess look over at me. We had our drink and went out. 
Hess then says to me: "Billy tells me that you are opposed 
to him." I says: "Yes." "Well," he says, "he will be 
nominated anyway. You don't amount to anything." I 
says: "No.? Well, I don't amount to much, but if Billy goes 
up to the Legislature he certainly will not be indebted to Joe 
Murray!" 

Of course Hess had a copy of the list of delegates selected — 
the primary ticket — and he sent a man named Jake Weller 
and his brother Charlie around to see the different delegates. 
Some of them told these men that they had not made up 
their minds; but the majority of them said: "Charlie, I 
should like to do you a favour very much, but I promised Joe 
Murray to vote for his candidate." When we had reached 
this point Major Bullard and I were sure of the convention. 
Now the thing to do was to get a candidate. 

A night or two after this talk at the Sinclair House Mr. 
Roosevelt came around to a regular meeting at Morton Hall 
to enter his protest against the renomination of the candidate 
that the county organization desired to have renominated. 
So I spoke to young Roosevelt that night. I told him that 
I was also opposed to the renomination of the regular candi- 
date and that I was looking around to try to get a suitable 
candidate. I had seen young Roosevelt at the meetings of 
the organization. My first interest in him w^as that of a vote- 
getter. It was later that I became interested in him as a man. 

At that time Columbia College was in the district. His 
father figured more or less prominently in philanthropy, and 
the name was a good one. In addition to that, I thought 
I would interest the football team of Columbia, the baseball 
team, and the other different athletes connected with the 
College, together wath the professors, among the most prom- 
inent of whom was Professor Van Amringe. Later, this pro- 
fessor got out and worked like a beaver. 

When I asked young Roosevelt if he would take the nomi- 
nation, he says: "No, I wouldn't dream of such a thing. It 



40 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

would look as though I had had selfish motives in coming 
around to oppose this man." "Well," I says, "get me a 
desirable candidate." "Oh," he says, "you won't have 
any trouble." "Well," I says, "it looks kind of easy, but 
so far I have not been able to get a candidate — the kind of a 
candidate that the Major and I think is a suitable one. Wc 
want to get the strongest one we can." 

So finally he promised to look around. By that time I 
made up my mind that it was Theodore Roosevelt or no one. 
Of course I did not tell him so. We parted that night, and 
I met him by appointment the next night. I forget now 
whether he asked me if I had a candidate or whether I asked 
him if he had found any one. Neither one of us had one. 
I says: "The convention meets in a couple of nights and we 
have got this man beaten, but we have no candidate. What 
excuse can we give to the organization for not renominating 
this man when we have no candidate?" 

"We won't have any trouble in getting a candidate," says 
Roosevelt. 

I says: "I hope not, but Mr. Roosevelt, in case we can't 
get a suitable candidate, will you take the nomination.?" 

He hesitated a moment, and says: "Yes, but I don't want 
it. In the meantime, I want you to promise me that if you 
can find a suitable man, have no hesitancy about nominating 
him and do not take me into consideration." 

I says: "All right, I'll do it." But I knew what I was going 
to do. So I met him the next night, and I reached out to 
shake hands with him, and instead of taking one hand he 
grabbed both hands. 

He says: "Mr. Murray, I have done you a great inju:tice. 
I had an idea that you were guying me. I met our friend, 
Mr. Edward Mitchell [afterwards United States District 
Attorney and one of the Trustees of Columbia College at 
the time] this morning. I had a talk with him, and I told 
him about my conversation with Mr. Murray. He said: 
^ Muter Murray .f* Do you mean Joe Murray?' I said, 



POLITICS 41 

•Yes' He said: *Mr. Roosevelt, did he tell you he would 
nominate you?* I said 'Yes.' And Mitchell answered me 
and said: *Well, Joe is not in the habit of making statements 
that he cannot make good. There is one thing I'll tell you. 
You have fallen into very good hands.'" 

"Oh," I says, when Mr. Roosevelt finished his story about 
Mitchell, *' that's all right." Afterward he made me say 
that I should have no hesitancy about pulling him out if I 
could get another candidate. 

The Convention met a couple of nights after that. Hess 
started around to capture my delegates. I had an idea that 
two could play at that game. Therefore while he was trying 
to capture four or five of my delegates, I happened to capture 
one of his; so, instead of the vote being fifteen to ten, it was 
sixteen to nine. 

After his nomination Theodore Roosevelt, Hess, Bullard, 
and I went out on a personal canvass. It was the custom in 
those days to visit the gin-mills, the stores, and places of 
business. The first place we happened to go into was the 
lager-beer saloon on Sixth Avenue, near Fifty-fifth Street 
kept by a German named Fischer. Hess introduced Mr. 
Roosevelt to the proprietor as the candidate for Assembly. 
Mr. Fischer says to him: "Well, Mr. Roosevelt, the Kquor 
interest has not been getting a square deal. We are paying 
excessive taxes. I have no doubt that you will try to give 
us some relief when you get up to the Legislature." (One 
of the grievances of Mr. Fischer was that the license was too 
high.) Mr. Roosevelt asked him: "Mr. Fischer, what is the 
license now?" Mr. Fischer named the figure — what he had 
to pay — and Mr. Roosevelt says, "Well, that's not right. 
I don't think you pay enough. I thought it would be at 
least twice as much!" 

After that we hustled him out and told him that he had 
better see to the college boys and his friends on Fifth Avenue, 
the society folks; that Hess, Bullard, and I would do the 
other end. 



42 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

I took charge of his canvass. Mr, Roosevelt referred a 
great many of his friends to me to find out what they could do, 
among them being Professor Van Amringe — I recollect him 
because he was more active than the others. Quite a few 
of the football team, two-thirds of the baseball team, and 
the boxing club and the wrestlers came down to see what 
they could do. I told them to go around to see their friends. 
They wanted to know, however, what they could do on Elec- 
tion Day. I told them that they could stand at the booths 
and ask their friends, irrespective of politics, to vote for 
Roosevelt. But a very large majority wanted to know where 
the tough districts were. I wanted to send them to the dude 
districts where they belonged, as I thought, but they thought 
they would be of more service where there was more fighting to 
be done. So the districts that we considered difficult to 
carry were the ones that were particularly well manned. In 
fact, we had ten men where under ordinary circumstances 
we would only send one. There were no special difficulties 
in the election, for the simple reason that the Tammany men 
knew what was coming to them If they started any rough 
house. 

Some of Mr. Roosevelt's friends who had *'inslde informa- 
tion," as they thought, came around and told him that I 
was an organization man, and that we wanted to elect Mr. 
Astor at all hazards; that he was simply put up for trading 
purposes In order to get votes for Astor from the Democrats, 
while in return we would vote for the Democratic candidate 
for Assembly. There were twenty-five election districts, 
and we only carried twenty-three out of the twenty-five for 
Roosevelt. It did not look, therefore, as though we had done 
much trading. The fact of the matter is there might have 
been some trading, but if there was we did not get the worst of 
it. As Mr. Roosevelt has said in his autobiography, it was a 
question between Jake Hess and Joe Murray. If Mr. 
Roosevelt was beaten Mr. Murray was beaten, and Joe could 
not afi^ord to have himself beaten. 



POLITICS 43 

Is it not a matter of satisfaction, a source of a 
kind of affectionate pride to those who beUeve in 
American democracy, that Theodore Roosevelt 
had this kind of introduction, thus described by 
Joe Murray, into the career which was eventually 
to make him one of the great figures of world his- 
tory? There is certainly a distinctively American 
flavour in the fact that the Irish immigrant of sim- 
ple origin and the native American of aristocratic 
lineage thus formed a political and personal ac- 
quaintanceship which ripened into a friendship 
that lasted until the day of the ex-President's 
death. It reveals a certain endearing human qual- 
ity in Theodore Roosevelt to know that he often 
expressed his sense of indebtedness to Murray 
as though the latter had been one of his earliest 
preceptors in the practice and philosophy of poli- 
tics. Indeed, he says of Murray in his autobi- 
ography: 

We never parted company excepting on the question of 
Civil Service Reform, where he sincerely felt that I showed 
doctrinaire affinities, that I sided with the Pharisees. We 
got back again into close relations as soon as I became Police 
Commissioner under Mayor Strong, for Joe was then made 
Excise Commissioner, and was, I believe, the best Excise 
Commissioner the city of New York ever had. He is now a 
farmer, his boys have been through Columbia College, and 
he and I look at the questions, political, social, and industrial, 



44 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

which confront us in 1913, from practically the same stand- 
point, just as we once looked at the questions that con- 
fronted us in 1 88 1. 

Theodore Roosevelt's political creed was indeed, 
from the very beginning, a distinctively human 
one. He liked men of all sorts and conditions of 
life so long as they were really men. He was not a 
''hail fellow well met" of the shoulder-slapping 
variety. No man knew better than he how to 
command respect and how to preserve his own dig- 
nity. But when he formed a friendship — and 
no man of our time has had wider, deeper, or more 
varied friendships — his personal relations with his 
friends were natural, simple, and confident. For 
him, a fundamentally good quality in a man cov- 
ered, like charity, a multitude of sins, which would 
have repelled a more austere and exacting judge. 
At the same time his own standards were extraor- 
dinarily high and consistent. Yet he was often 
accused of associating and working with political 
publicans and sinners — by men whom it is perhaps 
not unfair to call political Pharisees. This appar- 
ent anomaly was clearly seen to be no anomaly 
at all by those who understood his own doctrine of 
political association. It was once expressed by 
him to his intimate friend, Jacob Riis, in a pic- 
turesque and illuminating fashion: ^*I suppose," 



POLITICS 45 

he said, speaking of his earliest experiences in the 
New York Legislature, ''that my head was swelled. 
It would not be strange if it was. I stood out for 
my own opinion alone. I took the best 'mug- 
wump' stand — my own conscience, my own judg- 
ment were to decide in all things. I would listen 
to no argument, no advice. I took the isolated 
peak on every issue, and my associates left me. 
When I looked around, before the session was well 
under way, I found myself alone. I was absolutely 
deserted. The people didn't understand. The 
men from Erie, from Suffolk, from anywhere, would 
not work with me. 'He won't listen to anybody,' 
they said, and I would not. My isolated peak had 
become a valley; every bit of influence I had had 
was gone. The things I wanted to do I was power- 
less to accomplish. I looked the ground over, and 
made up my mind that there were several other 
excellent people there, with honest opinions of the 
right, even though they differed from me. I turned 
in to help them, and they turned to and gave me a 
hand. And so we were able to get things done. 
We did not agree in all things, but we did in some, 
and those we pulled at together. That was my 
first lesson in real politics. It is just this: if you 
are cast on a desert island with only a screwdriver, 
a hatchet, and a chisel to make a boat with, why, 



46 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

go make the best one you can. It would be better 
if you had a saw, but you haven't. So with men. 
Here is my friend in Congress who is a good man, a 
strong man, but cannot be made to beheve in some 
things in which I trust. It is too bad that he 
doesn't look at it as I do, but he does not, and we 
have to work together as we can. There is a point, 
of course, where a man must take the isolated peak 
and break with all his associates for clear principle: 
but until that time comes he must work, if he 
would be of use, with men as they are. As long 
as the good in them overbalances the evil, let him 
work with them for the best that can be obtained." 
One of the common virtues that most strongly 
appealed to him, socially as well as politically, was 
dependability. He was chary of making promises 
himself but when he did make them he kept them 
and he expected other men to do so, too. No Re- 
publican leader of the late eighties was more gener- 
ally charged with being pastmaster in all the arts 
and finesse of reactionary and corrupt machine 
politics than Senator Matthew Quay of Pennsyl- 
vania, popularly known as ''Matt" Quay. Now 
Roosevelt had not the slightest toleration for cor- 
ruption of any kind, but I have heard him more, 
than once defend ''Matt" Quay against attacks^ 
on the ground that when Quay made a promise t< 



POLITICS 47 

perform a certain act or to take a certain course 
that he could be depended upon to carry out that 
promise no matter what the poHtical cost to his own 
interests might be. And I have also heard him in 
the same spirit criticize with almost extravagant 
severity a great leader of the Republican party, 
whom the people at large regarded as a shining 
exemplar of uprightness and high principles, be- 
cause this leader would make a promise and then 
fail to carry it out loyally and energetically. 

There naturally was never a warm friendship 
between this leader and Mr. Roosevelt, a lack of 
friendship which by Mr. Roosevelt's critics was 
sometimes ascribed to jealousy — a wholly mistaken 
diagnosis, in my judgment. There was not a 
tinge of jealousy in Theodore Roosevelt's disposi- 
tion. He was, however, attracted by loyalty and 
dependability and repelled by what he thought to 
be austere or selfish aloofness. 

As an illustration I may perhaps without im- 
propriety refer to his relations with Senator Root 
who was Secretary of War and Secretary of State 
in the Cabinet of President Roosevelt, and whom 
Mr. Roosevelt often named as one of the ablest, 
wisest, and most patriotic statesmen that the 
country has ever produced. In 191 2, when Roose- 
velt left the Republican party after being defeated 



4^ IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

for the presidential nomination by methods which 
he thought were unjust and un-American, and by 
an unparalleled stroke of political skill formed the 
Progressive party and became its presidential 
nominee, his political and personal relations with 
Mr. Root were severed. But while in that hot and 
bitter campaign he denounced others among his 
political opponents in terms that sometimes had 
the flavour of primitive man, I never heard him 
once, either in private or in public, utter a personal 
criticism of Mr. Root. Indeed he defended Mr. 
Root against the criticisms of his (Roosevelt's), 
own friends who felt resentment that Mr. Rood's 
rulings as chairman of the Republicar^ National 
Convention had deprived Roosevelt of the nomi- 
nation which the people at large really wished him 
to have. More than once I have heard him say 
when Mr. Root's '* steam-roller" methods of seat- 
ing and unseating delegates at the Convention 
were denounced as inexplicable disloyalty to his 
former Chief: "No, you are wrong. It was not 
disloyal. Elihu Root has the legal temperament 
developed to a high degree. His first duty he 
conscientiously believes is to his client. When he 
was a practising lawyer before going into the Gov- 
ernment the corporations were his clients, and he 
was for the corporations. When he became a 



POLITICS 49 

member of my Cabinet the United States was his 
cHent, and he was for the United States and against 
the corporations. As chairman of that convention 
the RepubHcan party and its managers were Root's 
cHents, and he was for them and against me." 

The fact is that Roosevelt respected, I think it 
may be even said that he admired, this quahty of 
loyalty in Mr. Root, although he believed it to be 
misdirected in the campaign of 191 2 and felt that 
he was unjustly a sufferer from the misdirection. 

Theodore Roosevelt's career both as a politician 
and a statesman — I say politician and statesman 
because I think there is a real distinction between 
the two which I shall try to make clear in a later 
:hapter — was consistent, coherent, and coordinated. 
Fhis statement may be challenged. For his public 
ife was broken up, so to speak, into so many bril- 
iant and dramatic episodes that these episodes, to 
:he observer, sometimes seemed to be wholly unre- 
ated and not infrequently antagonistic. 

For example, in 1884 Roosevelt was a delegate 
o the National Republican Convention which 
lominated James G. Blaine for the Presidency, 
lie opposed that nomination and fought vigorously 
in behalf of the candidacy of Senator George F. 
idmunds of Vermont. But Mr. Blaine was nomi- 
lated. In spite of his ability and brilliance there 



50 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

were some financial incidents in his political career 
which were repellent to a large wing of the Repub- 
lican party who were then, as Mr. Roosevelt was, 
working for the reenforcement of the principle of 
common honesty in practical politics. This group 
of Republicans bolted the nomination, forming 
what was then known as the "mugwump" group, 
and supported Mr. Cleveland, the Democratic 
candidate. Although Roosevelt was only twenty- 
five years old he had made himself a figure in the 
convention as well as in the party. It was thought 
by the leading ''mugwumps" that he would sym- 
pathize with them and join them in their support] 
of Cleveland. They were mistaken, however. Hel 
supported Blaine, and gave his reasons for so doing 
in the following public statement: I 

I intend to vote the Republican Presidential ticket. A 
man cannot act both without and within the party; he car 
do either, but he cannot possibly do both. Each course ha: 
its advantages, and each has its disadvantages, and one can 
not take the advantages or the disadvantages separately 
I went in with my eyes open to do what I could within th 
party; I did my best and got beaten, and I propose to stanc 
by the result. 

Was his action in the Blaine campaign consisten 
with his action in 1912 when he bolted the nomi- 
nation of Mr. Taft, formed the Progressive party, 
and ran as a candidate for President himself.? Th( 



POLITICS • 51 

consistency, it seems to me, is a very real one. It 
is found in the statement made to Jacob Riis 
which I have quoted earUer in this chapter: 
** There is a point where a man must take the iso- 
lated peak and break with all his associates for 
clear principle: but until that time comes he must 
work, if he would be of use, with men as they are. 
As long as the good in them overbalances the evil 
let him work with them for the best that can be 
obtained." 

In 1884 he believed that it was his duty to work 
with the Republican organization. In 191 2 he be- 
lieved the time had come to take to the ''isolated 
peak" and to summon his supporters to join him. 
Both actions, seemingly so contradictory, were 
based upon, and were the logical result of, a funda- 
mental political and moral philosophy. I propose 
in the next chapter to try to outline why Theodore 
Roosevelt was led to create the Progressive party 
and to oppose the candidacy of Mr. Taft — the most 
dramatic and outstanding event in his career as a 
political manager. 



CHAPTER III 
THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY 

WHEN Roosevelt emerged from the African 
wilderness in March, 1910, I met him at 
Khartum in the desert on the edge of the jungle, 
fifteen hundred miles up the river Nile from Cairo. 
He had no sooner discarded the trappings of the 
jungle — and rather ragged and dilapidated trappings 
they were — and resumed the garb of the civilian en 
grand tour — in his case this garb was always simple 
and unaffected though appropriate — than he was 
confronted with all sorts of invitations to take up 
politics again. These invitations were conveyed 
by letter, cablegram, and even by personal delega- 
tion. He was asked to become a candidate for 
mayor of the City of New York and for senator 
from the State of New York, for example. All 
these invitations he declined with decision and 
without discussion. In more than one conver- 
sation he declared that his greatest desire, his 
sole ambition, was to return to his home at Saga- 
more Hill, Oyster Bay, for which I know, as do all 
his friends, that he had a deep and abiding alfec-i 

5 



THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY 53 

tion. There it was his plan, he said, to live the life 
of a country gentleman, spending his time out of 
doors in the countryside which he knew so well, 
and his time indoors in study, reading, and in writ- 
ing on historical, scientific, or political questions, 
with such occasional public speaking as might be 
appropriate. I am reminded of what Roosevelt 
said at that time by an incident related by Brander 
Matthews in a note which I received from him after 
Roosevelt's death: 

I think it was in February, 1893, that we spent a week 
in Washington. We dined one night w^ith the Roosevelts. 
I made some pleasant allusion to his future in public life. 
He looked at me, seriously and almost sadly. (Roosevelt 
was then Civil Service Commissioner.) Then he said: ''My 
future? How can I have a future in public life? Don't you 
know as Civil Service Commissioner I have made an enemy 
of every professional politician in the United States? I can't 
have any political prospects." 

I retorted that he would be President sooner or later. 
Whereupon he smiled and asked, "Then what will you want?" 
And then I smiled and answered: "I think I would rather go 
to London." 

In this same vein Roosevelt said to me in Khar- 
tum: ''My political career is ended. No man in 
American public life has ever reached the crest of 
the wave as I appear to have done without the 
wave's breaking and engulfing him. Remember 
Dewev'' 



54 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

In reply I told him I did not think the two cases 
were at all parallel; that the American people knew 
him, Roosevelt, after thirty years of trial in the 
whitest kind of light; that his acts, achievements, 
and character were tested and understood; and that 
the people had taken him into their confidence and 
affection permanently, for better or for worse. On 
the other hand, I argued that Dewey had suddenly 
been seized upon as a kind of idol by the American 
people, not because they knew him very well, but 
because of one great dramatic episode; and that 
when he did something which they disliked they 
discarded him, although unjustly, without any 
wrench or sense of personal loss. ^'No," insisted 
Roosevelt, '1 am going down like Dewey.^' More 
than once during our journey through Europe 
he referred to this assumed parallel in his career 
and that of the hero of the Naval Battle at Manila. 
"Remember Dewey" became almost a slogan or 
shibboleth in our political conversations, although 
Roosevelt used it not jocosely but very seriously. 

Coming back on the steamer from Southampton 
to New York in June of that year, the usual enter- 
tainment given in the saloon, for the benefit of 
some seamen's fund or other, took the form of a 
"chalk talk" by the late Homer Davenport, then one 
of the foremost of American newspaper cartoon- 



THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY 



55 



ists. The passenger list of the ship was a very- 
large one, many people choosing this particular 
steamer because Roosevelt was on it, and the saloon 




-/■" 



^^ He's good enough for all of us!" 

A Davenport cartoon of the presidential campaign of 1904 in which Mr, Bryan was 
thought to be not wholly averse to Judge Parker's defeat 

on the evening when Davenport spoke was crowded 
to its extreme capacity. Davenport's "chalktalks" 
consisted of a series of stories, usually humorous, 
each one being illustrated by a picture or a portrait 
which he rapidly drew with black crayon on a very 



56 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

large-sized pad of brown paper placed on an easel 
in sight of the audience. On this particular even- 
ing the last story which he told was one about Ad- 
miral Dewey. The story, somewhat condensed, 
ran about as follows: 

At the time when Admiral Dewey was being bitterly at- 
tacked in the newspapers, and criticized throughout the 
country because of the disposition which he made of the 
house presented to him in honour of his victory at Manila, 
I pubHshed in one of the newspapers a cartoon in his defense. 
I thought the Admiral was most outrageously treated, and 
I rather laid myself out to make the cartoon a striking and 
effective one. A few days after it was published a friend of 
mine who knew Dewey met me on the street in New York and 
said: *' Dewey has seen your cartoon and wants to see you. 
Will you go over to Washington.?" "Sure," I replied. We 
went over, and my friend took me to the Admiral's house. 
We entered the drawing room; I was presented to Mrs. 
Dewey; and just as the Admiral came forward to give me 
his hand, he burst into tears and threw himself upon a scfa 
In a paroxysm of weeping. Mrs. Dewey apologized and 
said: "You must excuse the Admiral, Mr. Davenport. He 
has been wrought almost to a pitch of nervous prostration 
by the unjust attacks made upon him. We had decided to 
go to Europe, never to set foot on American soil again, and 
had actually packed our trunks when we saw your cartoon. 
It was the first ray of light, and made us change our minds, 
and we have decided to remain in America, although some of 
our trunks are still upstairs just as we packed them for our 
departure." 

Davenport thereupon rapidly sketched a portrait 
of Admiral Dewey and his talk or lecture was 



THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY 57 

finished. There were calls for Mr. Roosevelt. 
He rose: 

*' Mr. Davenport/' said he, ''may I ask if the story 
you have just related of Admiral Dewey is accurate 
in all its details, or have you taken the pardonable 
liberty of an artist and put in a little colour .r"' 

''No," answered Davenport, ''the incident is 
just as I related it, in every detail." 

Whereupon Mr. Roosevelt paid an eloquent 
tribute to Dewey, defending him from the attacks 
that had been made upon him, and, after thanking 
Davenport, sat down. I happened to be next to 
him, and immediately ontaking his seat he turned to 
i me, and — recalling the numerous times in the month 
or two preceding in which he had remarked that he 
was "going down like Dewey" — said, sotto voce, 
"Lawrence, they may treat me like Dewey, but I'll 
tell you one thing, I shall neither weep nor shall I go 
to Europe!" 

Unhappily first the country and then the Gov- 
ernment did treat him like Dewey, but he neither 
wept nor did he abandon his country. He did 
not even show resentment or disappointment, but 
kept up his fight to the very end, in the greatest 
good spirits. His buoyancy, his capacity to rise 
superior to all external disappointments, was, I 
think, one of his greatest qualities. 



58 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

When Roosevelt arrived in New York in June, 
1910, after more than a year's absence, and after 
President Taft's Administration had been in power 
for more than a year, he found the RepubHcan 
party in a condition of chaos, if not completely 
disrupted. He believed that under the leaders 
then in control the party was going backward, that 
instead of being a party of progress it was becoming 
a party of reaction. His foresight was confirmed 
in the autumn by the Democratic victories and 
especially by the loss to the Republican party of 
Ohio, President Taft's own state. The disruption 
was caused by "Cannonism" the term used to 
describe Speaker *'Joe'' Cannon's control of party 
councils and party legislation, by the controversy 
over the Ballinger case and by Mr. Taft's ap- 
parent indecision and inconsistent public utter- 
ances on the tariff question. This domination of 
the reactionary group led some of the younger and 
forward-looking men in the party to make a pro- 
test. It was rebellion, and was in fact called the 
Insurgent Movement. It is well to remember that 
the Insurgents (so-called) of 1910 were the direct 
political progenitors of the Progressives of 1912. 

It is, of course, a fact that not long after his re- 
turn from Europe in 1910 Mr. Roosevelt did plunge j 
into active'politics again, was elected a delegate to | 



THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY 59 

the State Republican Convention at Saratoga, and 
made himself the leader of that convention, not by 
'* steam-roller methods'' — for he did not possess 
the power of official authority — but by the sheer 
force of his personal influence and persuasive argu- 
ment. He not only did not shut off debate but 
contended that the ''Old Guard," or Reactionary 
Group, should have complete freedom of discussion 
and the right to vote untrammelled by any tech- 
nical procedure. It was the most open and, in the 
best sense of the word, the most democratic con- 
vention that New York had seen for a long time. 
Roosevelt's candidate for governor, Mr. Henry L. 
Stimson — later from 1911 to 1913 Secretary of 
War — ^was nominated for governor although he 
was defeated for election in the autumn by Mr. 
Dix, the Democratic candidate. Mr. Stimson's 
defeat at the polls was regarded as a defeat for 
Roosevelt, and his opponents asserted that it 
meant the elimination of his active influence or 
authority in American politics. But in this judg- 
ment they were as mistaken as he himself had been 
when he compared himself to Admiral Dewey. 

How is it possible to reconcile Mr. Roosevelt's 
professions that he wished to keep out of active 
politics and had no ambition for political prefer- 
ment, with his political activities in the summer of 



6o IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

1910, his organization of the Progressive party in 
191 2, and his candidacy for President under the 
auspices of that party? It was commonly said at 
the time, and is perhaps now beheved by some 
people, that his course was prompted by the desire 
to destroy Mr. Taft politically because of rancour 
and antagonism that had sprung up between them. 
Fortunately I have in my possession a document 
which may throw some light upon this question. 

I had known through intimate association with 
Mr. Roosevelt of all the incidents which had led 
to the estrangement between himself and Mr. Taft. 
In the various political contests between 1910 and 
191 2 people had not infrequently come to me and 
asked for the facts, or had made statements to me 
that I knew were not accurate. I finally went to 
Mr. Roosevelt and asked his permission to describe 
the situation as I knew it, permission being neces- 
sary, I thought, because my knowledge had been 
acquired through confidential relationships. For 
example, when he left NewYorkforAfrica, in March, 
1909, 1 went with him, by invitation, to the steamer 
on which he sailed. Just before the ship pulled out 
into the stream I asked whether there were not 
something I could do of final service. ''Yes," he 
said, ''I wish you would send a telegram to Taft.'' 
I thereupon sat down at a table in the suite of 



THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY 6i 

rooms which he was to occupy and took down in 
long hand, at his dictation, a message — which I 
later despatched myself to Mr. Taft — a cordial 
and warm-hearted telegram bidding his old friend, 
now his successor in the White House, good-bye. 

I later learned that Mr. Roosevelt never received 
any reply or acknowledgment of his telegram, 
and that the first communication which came to 
him from Mr. Taft was not received until a year 
and three months later, when he arrived in Lon- 
don, although friends and acquaintances, and even 
strangers, had sent him, when he reached Khartum, 
cablegrams and letters of congratulation on his 
success in passing through the dangers of his African 
journey. This letter from Mr. Taft, written in 
his own hand, was received by Roosevelt in Lon- 
don in June, 1910. It stated the political difficul- 
ties into which the Republican party had been 
plunged and asked Mr. Roosevelt's counsel and 
help in extricating the party from those difficulties. 

On receiving Mr. Roosevelt's permission to make 
public, as I saw fit, such facts as these and others 
I wrote in January, 191 2, for the weekly paper in 
my own home town — the Cornwall, New York 
Local Press — an article which was stated by the 
editor to give "some facts concerning the personal 
relations of President Taft and Mr. Roosevelt 






or antuconjKm towards the (treat 
p'Tnllnmi nnd flornUri] rruKU.that 
>•« liellrted thnl Mr llooln rcpu- 
lawyer 



tally frartrd In view of tbc 
Mr liryan wok likely to 
nntl-corpomtlon rampalxn. 



cany ( 



to I 



and fi'et that probably any blgh- 
nilDded Republlcao could have been 
elected, but tbOM who remember the 
acilvlUea of Ite caiiit«lr> of 190) 
will also remember Ibat there were 
llmea wheo eTen th« Republlcao 
tnanafen felt that Mr Dryin'a 
I'bancea of election wer« aUoKether 
too good for their comfort. 
When It wa« tinallr decided that 
of either Mr. Ifuthe* 



'for the 



I have (Iv 



abOTe, 



tho <avo und bctwi.'Cli thn dale of hi* 
el'Cllon on<l hU Inaut^tiratlon In 190X 
iirk'^d lilm to Keparat't lilmxflf eo 
thorouBlily from any riooacvelt a?- 

t-oiiiil <r«-at<.- ItA ;own polu-IcK, and 
that thuM he miRlil lie renominated 
:ind rcleiled In 1312 on hi:, own In- 
dividual nicrlbi "wUlioul any taint 
i)f Hooacvcltlsui.- 

Wh'n Mr. Roosf^velt exceeded to 
till' pr>Bldencj- on the d'alh of Mr 
Mc-Klnlfry ho promised to carry out 
Mr McKlnley'K pollcloM. This he 
illd loyally Mc rrlolncd In hl» Cabl- 
not all of tho mfmbcfH of Mr. Mc- 
Klnky'H Cabinet, and It waa not UQ. 
Ill he waa elected In 1904 that ho be- 
ean to ahap<* the Government upon 
Ih- policies. In contra-< 
■ thow- of Mr McKlnley, 
now become hlRtorlcally aAROclatod 
with his administration. Mr. Taft 
on biB election, no doubt wlsbod to 
carry on the work of hlH predecessor, 
and. If not publicly, often privately 
' that It waa hla desire and Inten- 
to retain those Cabinet col- 
je« of -Mr Roosevelt who had 
ributed so much to the re-crea- 



Mr. Taft wan left aa u 
hl«,H may aJmoat aay, 
■bla candidate. It hi 



loat tvtila-| 
ooiy arall ' 




forced opon the party br Mr- R<>"<^ 
»«It. Tbl» u not fO. He wa» the 
rri« choice of th» party. Ho b*4 
voa a deservedly uUona) repntotlon 
through hla tdmlntatrsUon of the 
Philippine lalandai he had been a 
auccnaful and popular SocreUry of 
War: he wa« beUeyed to underaUnd 
InUmaUly Mr RooaeTolfa phltoao- 
phr and prtnclplea of Ooyemmenl 
and to b«ln aympathy with them 
ha wa» a warm peraonal friend o 
Mr. RooAovelt; and hla noroloallon 
live aatlafactlon not only to the 
pnrty but to th« country. Mr. Rooae. 
veil enured Into the cnropalgn for 
Mr Taffa election with hla chanw- 
trrlatlc enthualaam ud Ureleaa vig- 
or. Hla apeechea. his Utten. bla 

i„ «;<•;»'> -; co..!itiooj, mi i.. r.-- 

Iltlcal eipcrlence contributed to 
largely to the auccoaaful reault of 
tha election that bla crltlca h«v« 
aftid that he alone nomlnaUd and 
elected Mr. Ta/L 

Unfortunately, oome of Mr. Talt 
a^rlaora look thli 



this Intention became gradually mod- 
ined durlnit the winter of 1908-09. 
Only one member of the RoosoTelt 
Cabinet was retained, ond the on- 
member who was Mr. Roosevelt' 
inoHt Intimate associate aod on wbon 
h^ depended more 'Jian on any on« 
else In his struftglcfl 



'^ 






i^j^ 



control of 'big 



om he wxiuld have preferred 

taloed was not retained. I 

course, to Mr Jamca Oar 

Roosevelt's Secretary of 

the Interior.. In the Oallloger con- 



I refer. 






\ 



effect upon 



Taft admlnlstra- 
r Roosevelt's Intl. 
Ir GIfford PInchot. 



mate colleagues, \ 
was practically dismissed. It was 
perfectly manifest from these and 
many other occurrences of which 
these are only eiamplea Ibat Mr. 
Taft preferred to "go 11 alone." No 
one has ever accused Mr. Roosevelt- 
of being dull In his percepUons Ho 
quickly found that Mr. Taft wished 
to be relieved of any lotlmato Roose- 
velt associations, and he cheerfully 
and promptly acquiesced. One of the 

, reaaons that be went to Africa, to 
bury hlmsolf In the wllds for nearly 
a year, was to remove any possible 
eround for the charge that be was 
Interfering with Mr TaXt's adminis- 
tration. People have sold to me 

I FomeUme*, "Why t« It that Mr. 

I Roosevelt, who waa such an intimate 

I friend of Mr. Taft'a. ceased to maln- 

, Uln that Intimacy 






A photographic reproduction of a por- 
tion of the ''Local Press'' article, show- 



Mr Taft got 



62 






SUPP05* It Would br apparent to any 

Roosc\elt rrfralncd from Imposing 
bimscir ujjon the now Prefiidcnl. from 
the tilpljr-^t sense of delicacy Tbe ex 
president of a college who remains 
on the Doard of Trustees, and con 

or meddle with hlfl successor W one 
of the most unpleasant personr in the 

Mr Roosevelt La:. nt\er fail 



iTafl 
Take for 
political 



one incident in the 






iigu of 



C-iTV-' 



■V^ 






his alrrost slDgle-baoOcd fight In ibc 
State or New York One stormy day 
Mr Roosevelt jumped Into a motor 
boat at Oyster Bay. crossed the 
Sound, and had a private Intenicw 
with air Tart at New Haven, when 
the latter was attending a raeceting 
of tbe Corporation of Yale University 
The following day the newspapers 
announced— very unrortunatcly wlCh 
tbe apparent acnulescenLC of those 
nearest to Mr Tafi,— that the meet 
in^ was sought by Mr Roosevelt for 
the purpose of getting some help In 
bis contf-st with tbe "Old Quard" of 
the Sute Republican Machine Tbe 
facta are — and I have learned them, 
not from Mr Roosevelt, but from a 
friend of Mr Tafl who knew all the 
circumstances— that Mr Taft sent 
word to Mr Roosevelt aflkiog him 
to coxoe III order that be (Mr 
ITafl) might get tbe beneflt of Mr 
Roosevelfg advice regarding the eer 
lous split Id tbe national aSalrs of 
the Republican party wblcb reeulted 
from tbe fight of the "progressives"* 
In Congress against so-called "Can- 
nonlsm." Tbe newspapers, not 
knowing the factj, eald. "Aba! this 
la Just like Roosevelt, He has neg- 
lected Mr Taft, but tbe moment be 

help." The exact contrary ts true, 
and when Mr Taft called on Mr 
Roosevelt be quickly and generously 
responded to the call. These facte 
have never been published, for. of 
I course. Mr Roosevelt could not pub- 
I Ilsh tbem. be simply bad lo grin and 
i bear It, aa be has borne a good many 
other unjustlflable criticisms. 1 am 
8ta.tlng them now on my own respon- 
sibility and without consultation wltb 
Mr Roosevelt simply as an example 
of the misinterpretation which every 
man In public ll(« has often to under- 



► the question of 



Mr RooeeveU's poli 
When be emerged from Ainca. i met 
him at Khartum, one thousand miles 
up tbe Nile, In the center of Africa. 
He received scores, yes hundreds of 
letters and telegrams, urging blm to 
come back to the United States and 
enter public life again. Some wanted 
blm to become a candidate (or Unll- 



L-U SlatcM .- 
[o bocornf 
New York 
save tho II 
JUbasters w 
■nod by Caononlsm 



prlv 



*as a pri I 

lu, UvcllR 

Im mo ho' 



nnJHbed. 



ly wa-s hl.s polUical care 
but bio popularity wan ai 
that h*- had n-achcd Uie crest of tho 
wave anil that tho wave lucviuit>ly 
was aboui to break lie- referred 
iiiuiu than once to ihe oxptTlonco of 
Admiral Dewey and expressed his be- 
lief that, like Dc-wey. he was bound 
to meet with a revulsion of popular 
feeling Very vigorously but In p«t 
rect good humor, ho asserted that he 
and accomplished his mission In 
\merican political lire, and that oih 
em not only would, but must, lake 
tbe center of tbe stage One even- 
ing at a public lecture on the steam- 
er which brought us home from 
Suuthampton lo New York, when 
Homer Oavenpori. the cartoonist, 
•old a story of Admiral Uewey's be- 

meni he had received from tbe Amer- 
ican people and of the resolution he 
at one time formed of going to Eu- 



rope to 
Anierlcs 
turned i 



to 



foot 



soli again. Mr Roobevell 
mc and said They may 

treat me like Dewey but I tell you 
one thing. I thall neither weep nor 
aball I go to Europe'" 

He arrived In New York about the 
middle of June. 1910, and began at 

lal work on Thfi Outlook. The gu- 
bernatorial campaign of this State 
was in full swlQg Some of tbe young- 
er leaders in the party camo to him 
I aud asked blm to go Into tbe cam- 
paign He declined They said to 
him. that It was not fair to decline, 
thai the Republican Party had heap- 
ed honors; upon him and that now In 
the lime of Its tribulation and danger 
when they were honestly trying to 
purge It of some of the corrupt ele- 
ments he ought not to desert then 
'i you feel about It." 










there Is hardly a fighting chance for 
Eucce-ss and that we shall all proba^ 
bly go down to Ignominious defeat to 
gethe ■ 

It was lo this spirit loat he went 
Into the campaign. He was elected 
afi a delegate from Nassau County to 
the Saratoga Convention, was chos- 
en temporary Chairman participated 
In the free nominallon of Mr Stlm- 
candidate for Governor, gave 



his 



"Old Guard, 
t and fairest opportunity 
their dgbt oo tbe floor of \ 



ing Roosevelt's autographic comments 
on the Presidential Campaign of igoS 



^3 



64 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

never before published." The issue in which this 
paper appeared was that of January 4, 1912. I 
did not consult Mr. Roosevelt while writing the 
article, but after it was printed I cut it out, pasted 
it on some sheets of white paper with wide margins, 
and showed it to him. These margins contain 
annotations, in his own hand, written with an 
indelible pencil. 

It seems to me that the best way I can interpret 
Mr. Roosevelt's course from 1908 to 191 2 is to 
quote here the essential portions of that article 
giving especially his own notes upon my statements. 
I do this with some reluctance because Mr. Taft 
and Mr. Roosevelt resumed friendly relations 
before the latter's death, and because I personally 
share in the country's affection for Mr. Taft's 
genial kindliness of spirit. But my purpose, in- 
deed my duty is to interpret Mr. Roosevelt, and 
that can only be done by frankly stating the 
facts connected with the Progressive campaign 
of 1912. 

THE "local press" ARTICLE WITH MR. ROOSEVELt's 
ANNOTATIONS 

In order to understand the present political situation 
[January 191 2] with regard to the presidential nomination 
next summer it may be interesting to review Mr. Roosevelt s 
connection with National politics during the last three years. 



THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY 65 

In 1908 Mr. Roosevelt declined the Republican nomination 
which he could very easily have had. In fact, the party 
tried everything In its power to make him take It. But he 
stood by his public statement, made In 1904, that he would 
not take the nomination In 1908 even If it were offered to him. 
In keeping this promise it Is quite within the bounds of truth 
to say that he worked harder to prevent his nomination In 
1908 than most presidential candidates have to work to cap- 
ture a nomination. [This statement was one that Roosevelt 
made to me in more than one conversation.] 

Mr. Roosevelt having eliminated himself, it was necessary 
for the Republican Party in 1908 to find a candidate who 
would be considered by the country as capable of carrying 
out the uncompleted programme of the Roosevelt Adminis- 
tration. The chief feature of this programme was the estab- 
lishment of successful principles and methods by which the 
great railway and Industrial corporations of the country 
could be brought under government control. 

The three prominent figures in the Republican Party at 
that time, next to Mr. Roosevelt, were Governor Hughes, 
Secretary Root and Secretary Taft. Governor Hughes had 
not then won the great national confidence which he after- 
ward enjoyed. It was thought by the political managers, 
unjustly no doubt, that he did not possess those qualities 
of personal magnetism, the lack of which defeated President 
Harrison In 1892. 

Mr. Root, a great lawyer and a great Secretary of State, 
was a man of presidential timber, and In my judgment would 
have made a great President, but there was at that time 
throughout the country such a feeling of antagonism toward 
the great corporations and so-called trusts, that It was be- 
lieved that Mr. Root's reputation as a great corporation 
lawyer might endanger his election. This was especially 
feared in view of the fact that Mr. Bryan was likely to make 
an anti-corporation campaign. [Note by Mr. Roosevelt* 
^' I found that the westerners would not stand Root."] 



66 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

It is easy enough now to look back and feel that probably 
any hlghmlnded Republican could have been elected, but 
those who remember the activities of the campaign of 1908 
will also remember that there were times when even the 
Republican managers felt that Mr. Bryan's chances of elec- 
tion were altogether too good for their comfort. 

When it was finally decided that the nomination of either 
Mr. Hughes or Mr. Root was out of the question for the rea- 
sons I have given above, Mr. Taft was left as the most availa- 
ble, I may almost say, the only available candidate. It has 
been sometimes said that his candidacy was forced upon the 
party by Mr. Roosevelt. This is not so. He was the free 
choice of the party. [Note by Mr. Roosevelt: ''But it is 
so! I could not have nominated an extreme progressive or an 
extreme conservative but I could by a turn of the hand have thrown 
the nomhiation to either Taft or Hughes. The only way to 
prevent my own nomination was for me actively to champion 
and to force the 7iomination of some one else; I chose Taft rather 
than Hughes, and I still think I was wise."] He had won a 
deservedly national reputation through his administration 
of the Philippine Islands; he had been a successful and popular 
Secretary of War; he was believed to understand intimately 
Mr. Roosevelt's philosophy and principles of government and 
to be in sympathy with them; he was a warm personal friend 
of Mr. Roosevelt; and his nomination gave satisfaction not 
only to the party but to the country. Mr. Roosevelt entered 
into the campaign for Mr. Taft's election with his character- 
istic enthusiasm and tireless vigour. His speeches, his letters, 
his knowledge of the conditions and his political experience 
contributed so largely to the successful result of the election 
that his critics have said that he alone nominated and elected 
Mr. Taft. 

Unfortunately, some of Mr. Taft's advisers took this mis- 
taken view of the case and, between the date of his election 
and his inauguration in 1909, urged him to separate himself 
so thoroughly from any Roosevelt associations that his ad- 



THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY 67 

ministration could create its own policies and that thus he 
might be renominated and reelected in 191 2 on his own in- 
dividual merits "w^ithout any taint of Rooseveltism." 

When Mr. Roosevelt succeeded to the presidency on the 
death of Mr. McKinley he promised to carry out Mr. Mc- 
Kinley's policies. This he did loyally. He retained in 
his Cabinet all of the members of Mr. McKinley's Cabinet 
and it was not until he was elected in 1904 that he began to 
shape the government upon the policies, in contra-distinction 
to those of Mr. McKinley, which have now become historic- 
ally associated with his administration. [Note by Mr. 
Roosevelt: ^' No; the mere force of events had made me strike 
absolutely my ozufi note by October igo2, when I settled the coal 
strike and started the trust control campaign. In igo^ I took 
Panama.''] 

Mr. Taft on his election no doubt wished to carry on the 
work of his predecessor, and, if not publicly, often privately 
said that it was his desire and intention to retain those Cabi- 
net colleagues of Mr. Roosevelt who had contributed so much 
to the re-creation of the Republican Party. [Note by Mr. 
Roosevelt: ^^ He told me so, and authorized me to tell the Cabi- 
net, specifically Garfield, Straus and Luke Wright.''] But this 
intention became gradually modified during the winter of 
1908-09. Only one member of the Roosevelt Cabinet was 
retained, and the one member who was Mr. Roosevelt's most 
intimate associate and on whom he depended more than on 
any one else in his struggle to take the government out of the 
control of "big business," the member of all others whom he 
would have preferred to see retained, was not retained. I 
refer, of course to Mr. James Garfield, Mr. Roosevelt's Sec- 
retary of the Interior. 

In the Ballinger controversy, which has had so disastrous 
an effect upon the Taft Administration, another of Mr. 
Roosevelt's intimate colleagues, Mr. Gifford Pinchot, was 
practically dismissed. It was perfectly manifest from these 
and many other occurrences, of which these are only exam- 



68 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

pies, that Mr. Taft preferred to ''go it alone." No one has 
ever accused Mr. Roosevelt of being dull in his perceptions. 
He quickly found that Mr. Taft wished to be relieved of any 
intimate Roosevelt associations, and he cheerfully and 
promptly acquiesced. One of the reasons why he went to 
Africa, to bury himself in the wilds for nearly a year, was to 
remove any possible ground for the charge that he was inter- 
fering with Mr. Taft's administration. [Mr. Roosevelt often 
told me that this was one of his motives for his African trip.] 

People have said to me sometimes, "Why is it that Mr. 
Roosevelt, who was such an intimate friend of Mr. Taft's, 
ceased to maintain that intimacy after Mr. Taft got into the 
White House?" I should suppose it would be apparent to 
any one who stops to think that Mr. Roosevelt refrained from 
imposing himself upon the new President, from the highest 
sense of delicacy. The ex-President of a college who remains 
on the Board of Trustees, and constantly attempts to advise 
or correct or meddle with his successor is one of the most un- 
pleasant persons in the world. 

Mr. Roosevelt has never failed to respond quickly and 
cordially to the slightest wish expressed by Mr. Taft for his 
company or his advice. Take for instance one incident 
in the political campaign of the autumn of 1910 when Mr. 
Roosevelt was carrying on his almost single-handed fight in 
the State of New York. One stormy day Mr. Roosevelt 
jumped into a motor boat at Oyster Bay, crossed Long Island 
Sound, and had a private interview with Mr. Taft at New 
Haven, when the latter was attending a meeting of the Cor- 
poration of Yale University. The following day the news- 
papers announced — very unfortunately with the apparent 
acquiescence of those nearest to Mr. Taft — [as a matter of 
fact the announcement was made in an official despatch from 
the presidential train on which Mr. Taft was travelling] that 
the meeting was sought by Mr. Roosevelt for the purpose of 
getting some help in his contest with the ''Old Guard" of 
the New York State Republican Machine. The facts are — 



THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY 69 

and I have learned them not from Mr. Roosevelt but from a 
friend of Mr. Taft's who knew all the circumstances, that 
Mr. Taft sent word to Mr. Roosevelt asking Roosevelt to 
come in order that he, Mr. Taft, might get the benefits of 
Mr. Roosevelt's advice regarding the serious split in the na- 
tional affairs of the Republican Party, which resulted from 
the fight of the "progressives" in Congress against so- 
called "Cannonism." The newspapers, not knowing the 
facts, said, "Aha! This is just like Roosevelt. He has 
neglected Mr. Taft but the moment he gets into trouble he 
runs to him for help!" 

The exact contrary is true and when Mr. Taft called on Mr. 
Roosevelt he quickly and generously responded to the call. 

These facts have never been published, for, of course, Mr. 
Roosevelt could not publish them; he simply had to grin and 
bear it, as he has borne many other unjustifiable criticisms. 
I am stating them now on my own responsibility without 
consultation with Mr. Roosevelt, as an example of the mis- 
interpretation which every man in public life has often to 
undergo. [Note by Mr. Roosevelt: "Afy personal feeli?ig 
about Taft's relations with me never influenced by one iota my 
public course; it took 18 months to convince me that he was a 
first-class lieutenant, but no leader, with no real conviction on or 
appreciation of the 7nagnitude of the really vital problems before 
this country.''] 



He [Mr. Roosevelt] arrived in New York about the middle 
of June, 1910, and began at once to devote himself to the 
editorial work on the Outlook. The gubernatorial cam- 
paign of this state was in full swing. Some of the younger 
leaders in the party came to him and asked him to go into the 
campaign. He declined. They said to him that it was not 
fair to decline; that the Republican Party had heaped honours 
upon him and that now in the time of its tribulation and 



70 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

danger when they were honestly trying to purge It of some 
of the corrupt elements he ought not to desert them. "If 
that is the way you feel about it," was his reply, "I will take 
hold and do what I can, but I warn you that there is hardly a 
fighting chance for success and that we shall all probably go 
down to ignominious defeat together." [Note by Mr. Roose- 
velt: ^^ Hughes in especial asked 7ne."] 



The result of the campaign is a matter of record. Mr. 
Roosevelt was defeated. For a time he suffered from a most 
pronounced reversal of popularity and his opponents and his 
critics rejoiced in their openly expressed belief that he was 
permanently down and out. He made no complaint but 
went on with his editorial work, discussing questions of poli- 
tics and public importance with zest and without repining. 
As the year 191 1 came into Its last quarter, the people of the 
State, even some of the most enthusiastic supporters of 
Governor Dix, began to perceive that what Mr. Roosevelt 
had said in his public speeches during the campaign was true. 
The defeat of Mr. Stimson meant the saddling of Tammany 
upon the whole political machinery of the State. 



What Mr. Roosevelt does or says will be interpreted by 
some critics to his disadvantage. In the building where the 
Outlook has its offices there are two elevators, one in the main 
hall and one in the side hall. Mr. Roosevelt once said with 
a laugh during the campaign of 1910 when the Outlook office 
was crowded with people who came to consult him: "If I go 
down in the front elevator, my critics call it ostentation; if 
I go down in the side elevator, they call it secretiveness!" 



If Mr. Roosevelt is ever elected President again it will not 
be because he seeks or wants the office; it will be because the 



THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY 71 

country wants him in the office to perform a certain job. He 
has had all the political and official honours that any normal 
man can possibly want. He accepted a nomination for the 
Vice- Presidency in 1900 when such a nomination was thought 
to be equivalent to political oblivion, and although he wanted 
to run again for governor of the State of New York in order 
to complete some important work in that office. But his 
friends told him that it was his duty to sacrifice himself in 
order to strengthen Mr. McKinley's nomination and the 
campaign for sound money and the financial honour of the 
Nation. He accepted the nomination on that ground, al- 
though at the time both his friends and his enemies said it 
would mean the end of his political career. But instead of 
plunging into oblivion it brought to him an election to the 
Presidency in 1904 by one of the largest popular and electoral 
majorities ever received by an American President. This 
is what his critics call "Roosevelt luck." 

In 1908 he not only declined, but put a stop to his nomina- 
tion at a time when such a nomination was equivalent to an 
election. He has a European reputation as a statesman 
which has never been surpassed by any other American in 
political life and he appears to-day to be as popular among 
his own countrymen as he ever was. What possible incentive 
can there be to a man with such a record of achievements and 
honours to enter the arduous, disagreeable and often disas- 
trous contests into which the candidate who struggles for the 
Presidency is inevitably plunged. 

To be understood properly the notes which 
Roosevelt made upon the document here repro- 
duced need some interpretation. He wrote them 
briefly and categorically because he was aware that 
I would understand them without amplification. 

When he says: "I could have nominated Hughes 



72 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

more easily than Taft" or: *'I could not have 
nominated an extreme Progressive or an extreme 
Conservative," he means, of course, not that he 
was acting as a dictator but as the acknowledged 
leader of his party to whom not only the party 
managers but the delegates themselves came for 
advice. What they wanted was that he should 
tell them whom they should vote for in the con- 
vention if not for him. It was his moral and 
personal leadership and not his dictatorial and 
official power that made him the arbiter of the 
nomination. 

The same interpretation is to be given to his 
phrase: *'In 1903 I took Panama." Of course he 
could not have taken it in the sense in which Philip 
II of Spain took the free cities of the Netherlands, 
rhe meaning of the phrase will be more clear if it is 
paraphrased in this way: *'In 1903 / took action, 
guided almost solely by my own judgment of what 
was wise and proper, that resulted in the building of 
the Panama Canal." The fact that the inhabi- 
tants and the government of Panama itself were 
the most enthusiastic supporters and approvers of 
this action is proof that Roosevelt did not use the 
verb "to take" in the sense of seizure or conquest. 

What he says about Mr. Taft being ''a first-class 
lieutenant but no leader, with no real convictions 



THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY 73 

on or appreciation of the magnitude of the really 
vital problems before the country/' I shall discuss 
more fully later. He did not mean that Mr. 
Taft had no convictions of any kind. On the 
contrary, I am convinced that he believed Mr. 
Taft's convictions on legal and judicial questions 
were of a very high order. In another chapter, 
that entitled "A Man of Letters," I quote in full 
Roosevelt's own statement of the reasons that 
led him to become a Progressive. From the time 
of his governorship of the State of New York he 
had been slowly but steadily coming to the con- 
viction that there needed to be a thorough-going 
reform of the relations of government to industry 
both as regards capital and as regards labour. He 
felt that the country was approaching a crisis in its 
social and industrial conditions, a feeling that the 
outcome of the European war has more than con- 
firmed. His belief was that Mr. Taft did not share 
this conviction and did not appreciate the magni- 
tude and imminence of the crisis. The cleavage 
between the two men was due not to friction in 
their personal relations but to a fundamental differ- 
ence in their point of view. The personal friction 
was not the cause but the result of the difference in 
their political philosophies. I hope it is not pre- 
sumptuous in me to say that I think Mr. Taft's at- 



74 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

titude toward these social and human problems has 
changed since 191 2, and that he and Roosevelt 
found themselves much more in agreement during 
the last year of the European war. Mr. Taft's 
vigorous and broadminded leadership in support 
of the plan for a League of Nations against the 
bitter opposition of powerful members of his own 
party discloses those qualities of statesmanship in 
matters of national and international procedure 
which originally drew him and Roosevelt together 
during the years of the latter's Presidency. 

The statement that '* Hughes in especial asked 
me" refers to these facts: Mr. Hughes at the Har- 
vard Commencement of 1910 added his urgency 
to that of the younger Republicans who were beg- 
ging Roosevelt to go into the state campaign of 
that year. Mr. Hughes put this request on the 
ground that the Direct Primary cause which he 
had inaugurated needed Roosevelt's backing. 
Roosevelt assented and went into the fight, but 
somewhat to his chagrin Mr. Hughes then failed 
to give him any active support in the contest. 

As the Local Press article was commented upon 
by Mr. Roosevelt and in that way received the 
stamp of his personal approval it may be taken 
as a fair indication of his state of mind as to poli- 
tics at the opening of the campaign of 191 2. The 



THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY 75 

dissatisfaction of the Liberals or ''Progressives"' 
in the RepubHcan party with the course of Mr. 
Taft's administration had steadily grown during 
191 1. Early in 1912 President Taft made a speech 
at Cleveland in which he reviewed and defended 
his Administration. The Outlook made the follow- 
ing comment on that speech, and as Mr. Roosevelt 
was then a member of the editorial staff I know 
that its comment was not inharmonious with his 
own view. 

Why is it that there should be wide-spread popular dis- 
content with the Administration, not only on the part of the 
President's political opponents, but also within the ranks of 
the President's own party? 

In the first place, the President [Mr. Taft] has allowed him- 
self to become identified in the public mind with those elements 
in his party which have been frankly opposed to progress. It 
was not, for example, merely his defense of the Payne-Aldrich 
Tariff Act, as made in his Winona speech, that set the Pro- 
gressive element in his own party to questioning his attitude; 
it was even more the evidence that in the conferences over 
the tariff he seemed to find most congenial to him those lead- 
ers in the party who had been most opposed to real tariff re- 
form. Another illustration of this point was the famous 
Norton letter, in which it was admitted that the President 
had used Federal patronage against the Progressives in Con- 
gress. This feeling on the part of the Progressive element 
in the party has been confirmed by many expressions of the 
President himself. A notable illustration occurs in the clos- 
ing sentence of his Cleveland speech: 

"On this, the natal day of William McKInley, let us 

take new vows in behalf of the Grand Old Party, standing 



76 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

by the Constitution, standing by the rights of Hberty and 
property of the individual, and wilHng to face defeat many 
times in behalf of the cause of sound Constitutional gov- 
ernment." 

This might have been said in exactly these words by Mr. 
Cannon or any of the so-called standpatters who believe that 
the prime function of party government is to promote ma- 
terial prosperity or mere money-making. In such a sen- 
tence there is no hint of that feeling for which the Progressive 
element of Mr. Taft's party stands, that feeling which is 
growing more and more throughout the country — that in the 
end when human rights clash with property rights, human 
rights should prevail. In this sentence there is no hint of 
really sympathetic understanding of that movement which 
has changed the complexion of Congress and which has put 
'^he reactionary element in both parties on the defensive. 

The Progressive element, for the reasons thus set 
forth, was busily seeking for a candidate represent- 
ing the Liberal wing of the Republican party who 
could be put in nomination against Mr. Taft at the 
National Republican Convention at Chicago in 
June. The Liberal leaders were in constant con- 
sultation with Mr. Roosevelt, and his office was 
daily crowded with people. It was a veritable 
political headquarters. When urged to accept the 
titular leadership of the Liberal wing he steadily 
declined, and more than once I heard him say dur- 
ing this period that, while he was glad to help in any 
w ay he could, Senator La Follette of Wisconsin was 
the man on whom the Liberals must probably de- 



THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY ^y 

pend. This was not because of his personal admira- 
tion for Senator La Follette, about whom there was 
much which was not sympathetic to Roosevelt, 
but because he thought that justice to Senator La 
Follette required recognition of the sacrifices he 
had made in fighting the champions of reaction, 
for the Senator had devoted himself for many years 
with unflagging energy to the cause of popular 
government as opposed to special privilege. 

But in February, 1912, Senator La Follette 
collapsed in an aggravated attack of nervous 
prostration. This collapse came in a dramatic 
and tragic fashion while he was making a speech 
at the annual dinner of the Periodical Publishers' 
Association in Philadelphia, a speech which I 
happened to hear and which culminated in one 
of the most painful public spectacles I have ever 
witnessed. As a result of that unfortunate episode, 
during which for two hours the Senator rambled on, 
sometimes violently, sometimes incoherently, his 
friends and political managers announced his with- 
drawal as a presidential candidate. 

The pressure upon Mr. Roosevelt then became 
greater than ever. He finally said that if there 
was any evidence that a considerable body of the 
Republican party wanted him to be a candidate 
ne would agree to follow their wishe,*. Whereupon 



78 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

seven Republican governors, of the states of West 
Virginia, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Wyoming, 
Michigan, Kansas, and Missouri, addressed a letter 
to Mr. Roosevelt urging him to be a candidate and 

saying: 

We feel that you will be unresponsive to a plain public 
duty if you decline to accept the nomination coming as the 
voluntary expression of the wishes of a majority of the Re- 
publican voters of the United States through the action of 
their delegates in the next National Convention. 

Even before this letter was sent to Mr. Roose- 
velt steps had been taken in various parts of the 
country to elect Roosevelt delegates to the Na- 
tional Convention. Mr. Roosevelt believed that 
this letter of the seven governors was voicing a 
common popular demand and he replied, agreeing 
to become a candidate. In his letter he said : 

One of the chief principles for which I have stood and for 
which I now stand and which I have always endeavoured 
and always shall endeavour to reduce to action, is the genuine 
rule of the people; and, therefore, I hope that so far as possi- 
ble the people may be given the chance, through direct 
primaries, to express their preference as to who shall be the 
nominee of the Republican Presidential Convention. 

On the publication of the letter of the seven 
governors and Roosevelt's reply the campaign 
began with a full swing. Indeed, in so far as Mr. 



THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY 79 

Roosevelt's political principles and policies were 
concerned, it had begun some weeks before, for 
early in February he had been invited to address 
the Constitutional Convention in Columbus, the 
capital city of Ohio, and had there stated certain 
principles which he called "A Charter of Democ- 
racy." He announced his belief in the short ballot; 
in direct nominations by the people including pref- 
erential primaries for the election of delegates to 
the national nominating conventions; in the elec- 
tion of United States senators by direct vote; in 
the initiative and referendum ''which should be 
used not to destroy representative government, 
but to correct it whenever it becomes misrepresen- 
tative''; and finally he promulgated a theory which, 
because it was misinterpreted and misunderstood, 
raised a tremendous storm in the campaign — the 
theory of ''The Recall of Judicial Decisions." 
Briefly, he asserted that under this doctrine the 
voters at the ballot box should have an opportunity 
of saying whether a law nullified by the courts as 
contrary to the Constitution was in fact uncon- 
stitutional or not. On reading the speech it is 
apparent he had in mind the application of this 
principle or doctrine only to the individual states 
with regard to laws affecting social justice and that 
he doubted whether it could be adopted with re- 



8o IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

gard to decisions of the United States Supreme 
Court. 

Not long after this address, which was popularly 
known throughout the campaign as the Columbus 
speech, he made another at Carnegie Hall in the 
City of New York. It was delivered on March 
20, 191 2, under the auspices of The Civic Forum, 
a non-partisan organization. The Carnegie Hall 
speech was notable for two or three things. In it 
he took issue with Mr. Taft for the first time in 
public. He said: 

Mr. Taft's position Is the position that has been held from 
*he beginning of our government, although not always so 
openly held, by a large number of the reputable and honour- 
able men who, down at bottom, distrust popular government, 
and, when they must accept it, accept it with reluctance, and 
hedge it round with every species of restriction and check and 
balance, so as to make the power of the people as limited and 
as ineffective as possible. Mr. Taft fairly defines the issue 
when he says that our government is and should be a govern- 
ment of all the people by a representative part of the people. 
This is an excellent and moderate description of an oligarchy. 
It defines our government as a government of all of the people 
by a few of the people. Mr. Taft, in his able speech, has 
made what is probably the best possible presentation of the 
case for those who feel in this manner. 

He reaffirmed the creed which he had uttered 
before the Ohio Constitutional Convention saying : 

I stand on the Columbus speech. The principles there 
asserted are not new, but I believe that they are necessary 



THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY 8i 

to the maintenance of free, democratic government. The part 
of my speech in which I advocated the right of the people to 
be the final arbiters of what is due process of law in the case of 
statutes enacted for the general welfare will ultimately, I am 
confident, be recognized as giving strength and support to 
the courts instead of being revolutionary and subversive. 

The Carnegie Hall speech contains a good ex- 
ample of Roosevelt's enjoyment in occasionally- 
treating his own foibles humorously, in poking fun 
at himself, so to speak. William Draper Lewis, 
Dean of the Law School of the University of 
Pennsylvania, who afterward became intimately 
associated with Roosevelt in the Progressive 
campaign, had, in a newspaper article, referred to 
the recall of judicial decisions with approval on the 
whole. He had commended the plan as being 
not only in favour of popular rights but as entirely 
harmonious with the best-established legal prin- 
ciples, adding, however: 

I think it unfortunate that it should have been proposed 
by Colonel Roosevelt. He is a man of such marked charac- 
teristics and his place in the political world is such that he 
arouses intense enthusiasms on the one hand and intense 
animosities on the other. Because of this, the great idea 
which he has propounded is bound to be beclouded and its 
adoption to be delayed. It is a pity that anything so import- 
ant should be confounded with any man's personality. 

During his speech Roosevelt read Dean Lewis's 
entire critique of the plan and said with that char- 



82 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

acteristic intonation of voice which indicated his 
sense of humour: 

As regards the Dean's last paragraph I can only say that 
I wish somebody else whose suggestions would arouse less 
antagonism had proposed it; but nobody else did propose it 
and so I had to. I am not leading this fight as a matter of 
aesthetic pleasure. I am leading because somebody must 
lead, or else the fight would not be made at all. 

The Carnegie Hall speech contained one of the 
most eloquent and moving passages in the whole 
range of Roosevelt's public utterances. Toward 
the conclusion of the speech he uttered these 
words: 

Friends, our task as Americans is to strive for social and 
mdustrial justice, achieved through the genuine rule of the 
people. This is our end, our purpose. The methods fori 
achieving the end are merely expedients, to be finally ac- 
cepted or rejected according as actual experience shows that 
they work well or ill. But in our hearts we must have this 
lofty purpose, and we must strive for it in all earnestness 
and sincerity, or our work will come to nothing. In order '• 
to succeed we need leaders of inspired idealism, leaders to 
whom are granted great visions, who dream greatly and strive 
to make their dreams come true; who can kindle the people 
with the fire from their own burning souls. The leader for 
the time being, whoever he may be, is but an instrument, 
to be used until broken and then to be cast aside; and if he 
is worth his salt he will care no more when he is broken than 
a soldier cares when he is sent where his Hfe is forfeit in 
order that the victory may be won. In the long fight for 
righteousness the watchword for all of us is *' Spend and be 



THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY 83 

spent." It is of little matter whether any one man fails or 
succeeds; but the cause shall not fail, for it is the cause of 
mankind. 

The audience, recognizing the personal implica- 
tion of these words, responded by instinctively 
rising to their feet and bursting into a storm 
of applause. I happened to be sitting in a box 
and could look down upon the people who filled 
every available seat in the body of the hall. I 
noticed William Barnes of Albany, the well-known 
leader of the **01d Guard" faction in the Repub- 
lican party, a typical reactionary, who had fought 
Roosevelt in the gubernatDrial campaign of 1910 
and who was later to engage in a bitter libel suit 
with him as a result of their political antagonisms. 
But Barnes rose and applauded with the rest. A 
friend told me that when Barnes later in the evening 
at one of the clubs was twitted for this public trib- 
ute to his arch-enemy he replied: "Why, I was on 
my feet before I knew it. Roosevelt, confound 
him, has a kind of magnetism that you cannot 
resist when you are in his presence!" 

It is not necessary here to go into the historical 
details of the Progressive campaign. Roosevelt 
was the popular candidate for the Republican nomi- 
nation. He was seeking not merely the nomina- 
tion, but to establish the free primary system by 



84 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

which the people at large could exercise their choice 
directly in the National conventions. At the 
Republican Convention in Chicago delegates who 
were elected to vote for his nomination were re- 
fused credentials and delegates whom he and his 
friends believed did not represent popular will but 
who were pledged to vote for Mr. Taft were seated. 
Roosevelt felt that this was not merely an injus- 
tice to himself but that it was a corrupt and brazen 
violation of popular rights. How close he came to 
the nomination was related as follows by one of 
my associates on the staff of the Outlook, Mr. 
Travers Carman, who accompanied Roosevelt 
to the Republican Convention as a personal friend 
and aide. 

It was known that Mr. Roosevelt lacked twenty-eight 
delegates (my recollection is that this was the number) to 
secure the nomination. The most memorable conference I 
ever attended (and I was there merely in the capacity of 
''doorman") was held that night at the Colonel's headquar- 
ters on the second floor of the Congress Hotel, and attended 
only by those most concerned in the success of Mr. Roose- 
velt's campaign. The entire situation was carefully dis- 
cussed, analyzed, and dissected. By questionable means the 
Colonel would not, and by fair means apparently he could not, 
secure the nomination, and then came the memorable climax; 
a delegate to see Mr. Roosevelt, on a vitally important mat- 
ter, who, when admitted to the conference, announced .with 
ill-concealed excitement that he represented thirty-two South- 
ern delegates to the Republican Convention who would 



THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY 85 

pledge themselves to vote for the Colonel as the Presidential 
candidate, provided that they would be permitted to vote 
with the old-line Republicans on all motions with reference 
to party organization, platform, etc. Here were thirty-two 
votes, and all that Mr. Roosevelt needed was twenty- 
eight. 

Without a moment's hesitation and in the deathhke silence 
of that room the Colonel's answer rang out, clearly and dis- 
tinctly: *'Thank the delegates you represent, but tell them 
that I cannot permit them to vote for me unless they vote 
for all progressive principles for which I have fought, for 
which the Progressive element in the Republican party stands 
and by which I stand or fall." 

Strong men broke down under the stress of that night. 
Life-long friends of Mr. Roosevelt endeavoured to persuade 
him to reconsider his decision. After listening patiently 
he turned to two who had been urging him to accept the offer 
of the Southern delegates, placed a hand on the shoulder of 
each, and said: *'I have grown to regard you both as brothers; 
let no act orword of yours make that relationship impossible." 

While the formalities of Mr. Taft's nomination 
were as yet incomplete the delegates supporting 
Mr. Roosevelt, who were convinced that they were 
a true majority of the Republican Convention, 
gathered almost spontaneously in Orchestra Hall 
and nominated Roosevelt for the Presidency. The 
Progressive party was thus born. It was com- 
pletely organized in every state in the Union dur- 
ing the next few weeks and cast more than four 
million votes in November. It was a political 
achievement, solely the fruit of Roosevelt's ex- 



86 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

traordinary personality, unparalleled in the his- 
tory of this country — or any other for that matter. 

The Progressive campaign was one of very deep 
feeling and earnestness and of some bitterness, 
although I do not think that the bitterness was 
greater — perhaps it was even less — than that of 
the presidential campaigns of my boyhood and 
early manhood. Possibly the very fact that they 
had formerly been close friends led both Mr. Taft 
and Mr. Roosevelt to feel especially strongly about 
the personal contest in which they had become in- 
volved. This peculiar feeling of antagonism found 
vent in two speeches, both made in New England, 
one by Mr. Taft, and one by Mr. Roosevelt, in 
which some invective was employed on both sides. 
I think it is only fair to Mr. Roosevelt's memory 
to say that it was not he who cast the first stone, 
but that he struck back only when he felt that he 
had been himself **hit below the belt." And dur- 
ing the rest of the campaign, although his own mo- 
tives were repeatedly attacked, he never resorted 
to aspersing the motives or personal character of 
his opponents. 

That, however, is happily an episode of the past, 
and it is a satisfaction to all their friends, many of 
whom shared their friendship with each man, that 
the two ex-Presidents were reconciled before the 



THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY 87 

end came. Whatever harshness of language Mr. 
Roosevelt may have employed in the one speech to 
which I have referred, acrimony was not at all 
characteristic of him. Indeed, there may well be 
repeated of him what Lord Rosebery, in his life 
of William Pitt, said of Charles James Fox: 

The mastering passion of Fox's mature life was the love of 
liberty; it is this which made him take a vigorous, occasionally 
an intemperate, part against every man or measure in which 
he could trace the taint or tendency to oppression; it is this 
which sometimes made him speak with unworthy bitterness; 
but it was this which gave him moral power, which has neu- 
tralized the errors of his political career, which makes his 
faults forgotten and his memory sweet. 

During the entire summer of 191 2, while he was 
involved in a contest that cost him friendships 
and associations that meant much to him, he 
preserved his poise and equanimity in a very 
marked degree. He went through the National 
campaign of 191 2 as he went through the state 
campaign of 19 10, in a vigorous, alert, undismayed, 
and actually happy frame of mind. I think he 
was sustained by the knowledge that there 
were thousands upon thousands of Americans, 
whom he had never seen or spoken to, who liked 
him and trusted him. My brother who once 
made a campaign trip with him, during the period 



SS [MPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

in which the Progressive party was gradually 
developing, has described as follows, for a French 
periodical, this affection of the plain people for 
the man whom they delighted to call ''Teddy": 

It was my fortune to accompany him on this journe}^ in a 
private car. He was not then President, for he had retired 
from office the year before; he was not a candidate for elec- 
tion. He was simply a private citizen; but everywhere 
people came in throngs to greet him. He was their man. 
I remember one night, while the train was rushing through 
one of the great central prairie states, I looked out of the 
window just before I went to sleep and saw in the lighted 
doorway of one isolated farmhouse a little family group gath- 
ered and waving a flag; as I watched, another farmhouse 
flashed by and there was another little group waving their 
salute. It was as if they had waited up to bid a welcome and 
a good-bye to a brother, though they knew in advance he 
would be unseen and unseeing. And in the morning I 
waked up very early; it was scarcely dawn; but as I looked out 
che people were up and greeting their friend. All night long, 
apparently, these friends of Theodore Roosevelt whom he 
never saw, one family group after another, had been giving 
him their benediction. 

Another day on this same journey stands out in my mem- 
ory. It was a Sunday. Mr. Roosevelt had stated positively 
that he would make no speeches that day. The special train 
was to run from the morning until almost dusk without a 
stop. It had not run far when I heard a strange sound. It 
swelled suddenly into a confusion of voices and then subsided. 
I looked out. We had just passed a railway station in a 
wide stretch of country. Around the station I saw a crowd 
of people. Where had this crowd come from? Every farm- 
house for miles must have contributed its entire household. 
Again as we passed another station came the crescendo and 



I> 



THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY 89 

diminuendo of the sound of voices. Mr. Roosevelt came out 
from his stateroom where he had been reading. He could 
not pass these friends of his, friends he had never before seen, 
but friends who had cared so much for him that they had 
driven for miles over the rough country roads, in all sorts 
of vehicles, simply in order to be beside the track as his train 
went by. So thirty times that day the sound of cheering 
voices swelled, thirty times the train stopped, thirty times 
Mr. Roosevelt left his reading to be out on the rear platform 
and greet those who had for the most part never seen him, 
and had no hope of seeing him, but who came just to show 
their friendship. 

I am reminded, by my brother's account of 
Roosevelt's genius for friendship, of an incident 
which came under my own observation. 

During the gubernatorial campaign of 1910, 
which resulted in the defeat of Mr. Roosevelt's 
object, a defeat which I think he foresaw, he 
maintained his good spirits and even gayety of 
humour, although it must have been a very trying 
summer. The days that he spent at his office were 
constantly interrupted by an interminable pro- 
cession of callers with all of whom he was patient, 
although in only a few cases could he have had any 
interest in seeing them. One day while I was 
seated in his private office, which was a fairly good- 
sized room, his secretary announced Senator Carter 
of Montana. The Senator was shown into the 
room. He was dressed, as I recall it, in a gray 



90 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

frock coat. His round face, surmounted with red 
hair, shone with pleasure. 

To my intense amazement Mr. Roosevelt leaped 
out of his chair, seized the Senator by the hands 
and they began dancing back and forth across the 
room, chanting the following doggerel in unison: 

"Oh, the Irish and the Dutch 
They don't amount to much. 
But huroo for the Scandinoo-vian!" 

After Senator Carter had left, Mr. Roosevelt, 
amused at the look of surprised interrogation on my 
face, volunteered the following explanation: '*Tom 
Carter is a good friend of mine, although we have 
often disagreed radically on political principles and 
issues. He is something of a standpatter and I am 
afraid he sometimes thinks I am something of a 
visionary crank. Some years ago, during a politi- 
cal campaign, he and I were scheduled to speak on 
the same occasion in a town of the Northwest. 
When we came out of the hall and were walking 
along the boardwalk of the little village to our 
hotel we met a huge Swede or Norwegian who was 
somewhat exhilarated from pouring too many liba- 
tions in honour of the Republican party. As he 
zigzagged his way along the narrow sidewalk, we 
had to step aside to avoid a collision. He was 



THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY 91 

singing at the top of his lungs that song about the 
Irish and the Dutch. Now Senator Carter is 
Irish and I am Dutch and we thought it was a 
very good joke on us. So every time we have met 
since, unless there are too many people about, we 
are apt to greet each other as we did just now. 
It has become a kind of ritual." 

The Progressive campaign of 191 2, with its ex- 
hausting work and its depressing disappointments, 
was a severe test for any man. Roosevelt came 
through it with two of his marked and engaging 
personal qualities unimpaired — his capacity for 
friendship and his unquenchable sense of humour. 



CHAPTER IV 
STATESMANSHIP 

THEORETICALLY, the words '^statesman- 
ship" and ''poHtics" are synonymous. The 
primary meaning of "poHtics" is given in the Cen- 
tury Dictionary as: ''The art or science of govern- 
ment"; and the same authority defines ''states- 
manship" as: The quaUfications of "a man who is 
versed in the art of government." But the devel- 
opment of democracy among EngHsh-speaking 
peoples has given rise to secondary meanings of the 
terms which involve a marked differentiation be- 
tween them. The Century Dictionary adds to 
its first definition of "statesmanship" that it is: 
"Political skill in the higher sensed' and asserts 
that "politics" usually means, in American prac- 
tice at least, "the art or vocation of guiding or in- 
fluencing the policy of a government through the 
organization of a party among its citizens; the art 
of influencing public opinion, attracting and mar- 
shalling voters; in an evil sense, the schemes and 
intrigues of political parties, or of cliques or in- 
dividual politicians." The same lexicographers 

Q2 



STATESMANSHIP 93 

who tell us that the word "politics" is derived from 
the Greek word r.oXhriq, citizen, emphasize the 
degraded side of politicians. Is this because of 
the instinctive distrust of democracy on the part 
of the French and English intellectuals who made 
our earliest dictionaries? 

For some reason or other, which it would be 
interesting to inquire into but which is not germane 
to my purpose, mankind has always looked some- 
what superciliously upon the mechanics of any art. 
The poet is more highly honoured than the gram- 
marian, the painter than the chemist, the violinist 
than the physicist, the aviator than the machinist. 
And yet we could not have the poetry of Keats 
without the men who have grubbed out the rules 
of syntax and prosody; the paintings of Monet 
without the workers who have toiled over the 
chemistry of colours and the laws of light; the music 
of Fritz Kreisler without those who have discov- 
ered in the workshop and laboratory the principles 
of harmonies and resonance; the heroic "aces" 
on the western front without the grimy artisans 
in overalls who adjusted and tuned up the engines 
of the battle-planes. So, too, we could not have 
statesmen if there were no politicians to create the 
machinery without which statesmanship would be 
inoperative. Nevertheless, it has long been the 



94 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

fashion to treat politics and politicians as if they 
were necessarily contemptible. James Russell 
Lowell once said: "I always hated politics in the 
ordinary sense of the word." James Bryce, in his 
classic and monumental ''American Common- 
wealth," speaks of "the local and dirty work of 
politics," and gives one of his chapters the signifi- 
cant title: ''Why the best men do not go into 
politics." 

Now with this secondary — although, unfortu- 
nately, customary — interpretation of the terms 
''politics,'' ''politicians,'' '' -political parties,' Theo- 
dore Roosevelt had no sympathy whatever. He 
knew, of course, that politics is often corrupt; 
that politicians are often ignorant, selfish, and dis- 
honourable; that political parties are often narrow, 
hide-bound, and short-sighted. But he did not 
believe that these evils are essential to and in- 
separable from politics any more than reactionary 
dogmatism and inquisitorial cruelty are essential | 
and irremediable characteristics of the Church. 
He believed that politics and political activity in 
the administrative sense — in the machine sense, so 
to speak — are the very basis of democracy. Poli- 
tics meant citizenship to him and he thought that 
every citizen should take some part in political 
activities. Moreover, he believed that deliber- 



STATESMANSHIP 95 

ately to make politics a profession, a means of live- 
lihood, is no more unworthy or undignified than 
to make a living from the practice of medicine or of 
law, provided that the professional politician puts 
service to the State as his main object. There are 
doubtless quacks among the doctors, pettifoggers 
among the lawyers, and hypocrites among the 
clergy, but we do not for that reason condemn all 
men who choose Law, Medicine, or the Church for 
their life work and are supported by the proper 
emoluments of their services. 

It is necessary to understand this point of view 
in order properly to interpret Theodore Roose- 
velt's life-long attitude toward what is too often 
contemptuously called "practical politics." The 
very mainspring of his tireless activities was states- 
manship — the framing, shaping, administering, 
and maintaining of those great policies of national 
and international relations that make civilized 
society a permanent, vital, and progressive organ- 
ism. He lived, however, not in the clouds but 
with both feet on the ground, and he knew that 
great State policies cannot be obtained unless the 
political machine that produces them is kept in 
good running order. Statesmanship is like a val- 
uable and beautifully patterned silk; politics is the 
intricate loom on which it is woven. Roosevelt's 



96 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

eye was always on the silk; that is what he was ulti- 
mately striving for; but he was never bored, or 
irritated, or disgusted, as statesmen of the highly 
sensitized type of James Russell Lowell or John 
Hay often are, by the necessity of tinkering with 
the loom, or of soiling his hands with the lubri- 
cating oil, or of spending tedious hours in replacing 
broken or worn-out parts. He felt a zest to the 
very last for this mechanical side of statesman- 
ship. 

Among my papers I find a letter written to my 
father by Mr. Roosevelt and dated the White 
House, February 23, 1906. It discloses, it seems 
to me in a way pertinent to what I am contending 
for in this chapter, Roosevelt's own attitude of 
mind toward the machinery of politics. The cir- 
cumstances that prompted the letter are as fol- 
lows: 

In the November elections of 1905 the defeat of 
machine-made tickets in both the Republican and 
Democratic parties in various states was so marked 
that the Outlook gave a large amount of space tc 
the phenomenon calling it: "The Rout of the 
Bosses." Massachusetts was nearly lost to the 
Republican party. In commenting upon this sur- 
prising reversal of form in a banner Republican 
state, the Outlook said editorially: 



STATESMANSHIP 97 

Senator Lodge Is a boss of agreeable personality — a gentle- 
man of culture, a "scholar in polities'' — against whose per- 
sonal integrity no suspicion has ever been uttered, but he 
has undertaken to tell the people of Massachusetts what 
they ought to wish instead of asking them what they do wish, 
and every vote for Mr. Whitney was less a vote for reci- 
procity than a vote against the spirit and methods of a poli- 
tical dictator. 

This drew from Mr. Roosevelt the letter above 
referred to, in which he said: 

You would be surprised to know how many men have 
spoken to me about the article on Lodge. Lodge has violent 
enemies. But he is a boss or the head of a machine only in 
the sense that Henry Clay and Webster were bosses and 
heads of political machines; that is, it is a very great injus- 
tice to couple his name with the names of those commonly 
called bosses, in any article. I know Massachusetts politick 
well. I know Lodge's share in them, and I know what he 
has done In the Senate. He and I differ radically on certain 
propositions, as for instance on the pending Rate Bill and on 
the arbitration treaties of a couple of years ago; but I say 
deliberately that during the twenty years he has been in 
Washington he has been on the whole the best and most use- 
ful servant of the public to be found in either house of Con- 
gress. I say also that he has during that period led politics 
in Massachusetts in the very way which. If It could only be 
adopted in all our states, would mean the elimination of graft, 
of bossism, and of every other of the evils which are most 
serious in our politics. Lodge is a man of very strong con- 
victions, and this means that when his convictions differ 
from mine I am apt to substitute the words ''narrow" and 
"obstinate" for "strong"; and he has a certain aloofness and 
coldness of manner that Irritate people who do not live in New 



98 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

England. But he is an eminently fit successor of Webster 
and Sumner in the senatorship from Massachusetts. 

In Other words, Roosevelt believed in political 
organizations; he believed that those organizations 
must have managers, often miscalled ''bosses," 
just as every business man of common sense 
knows that factories and ranches and railroads 
must have foremen or bosses. The political man- 
ager, however, must exercise his function in order 
to get the best product out of the machine, which 
is the general welfare not merely of the party 
but of all the citizens. 

Nowhere else in his writings, so far as I know, 
has Roosevelt expressed so clearly his buoyant 
enjoyment of his work, of its very obstacles and 
rebuffs, as he did spontaneously in an address to 
the students of the University of Cambridge on 
May 26, 1910, when he received the honorary 
degree of LL.D. His discourse on this occasion, as 
I have said in a preface of his collected "African 
and European Addresses" published by the Put- 
nams, was not like his Romanes lecture at Oxford, 
part of the academic ceremony connected with the 
conferring of the honorary degree. It was spoken 
to an audience of undergraduates when, after the 
academic exercises in the Senate House, he was 
elected to honorary membership in the Union 



STATESMANSHIP c,9 

Society, the well-known Cambridge debating club 
which has trained some of the best public speakers 
of England. At Oxford the doctors and dignitaries 
cracked the jokes — in Latin — while the under- 
graduates were highly decorous. At Cambridge, 
on the other hand, the students indulged in the 
traditional pranks which often lend a colour of 
gayety to University ceremonies at both Oxford 
and Cambridge. Mr. Roosevelt entered heartily 
into the spirit of the undergraduates, and it was 
evident that they, quite as heartily, liked his under- 
standing of the fact that the best university and col- 
lege life consists in a judicious mixture of the grave 
and the gay. The honour that these undergrad- 
uates paid to their guest was seriously intended, 
was admirably planned, and its genuineness was 
all the more apparent because it had a note of 
pleasantry. 

Mr. Roosevelt spoke as a university student to 
university students and what he said — although 
brief, extemporaneous, and even unpremeditated — 
was the genuine expression of his philosophy of 
life. The speech was frequently interrupted by the 
laughter and applause of the audience, and the 
theory that Mr. Roosevelt propounded, namely, 
that any man in any walk of life may achieve gen- 
>iine success simply by developing ordinary quali- 



loo IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

ties to a more than ordinary degree, was widely 
quoted and discussed by the press of Great Britain. 
I quote the following passage from that speech be- 
cause it confirms the point I am endeavouring to 
make. 

We have in the United States an organization composed 
of the men who forty-five years ago fought to a finish the great 
Civil War. One thing that has aWays appealed to me in 
that organization is that all of the men admitted are on a 
perfect equality, provided the records show that their duty 
was well done. Whether a man served as a lieutenant- 
general or an eighteen-year-old recruit, so long as he was able 
to serve for six months and did his duty in his appointed 
place, then he is called Comrade, and stands on an exact 
equality with the other men. The same principle should 
shape our association in ordinary civil life. 

I am not speaking cant to you. I remember once sitting 
at a table with six or eight other public officials, and each 
was explaining how he regarded being in public life — how 
only the sternest sense of duty prevented him from resigning 
his office, and how the strain of working for a thankless con- 
stituency was telling upon him — and that nothing but the 
fact that he felt he ought to sacrifice his comfort to the wel- 
fare of his country kept him in the arduous life of statesman- 
ship. It went round the table, until it came to my turn. 
This was during my first term of office as President of the 
United States. I said: "Now, gentlemen, I do not wish 
there to be any misunderstanding. I like my job, and I 
want to keep it for four years longer." [Loud laughter and 
applause.] I don't think any President ever enjoyed him- 
self more than I did. Moreover, I don't think any ex- Presi- 
dent ever enjoyed himself more. I have enjoyed my life 
and my work because I thoroughly believe that success — 



STATESMANSHIP loi 

the real success — does not depend upon the position you 
hold, but upon how you carry yourself in that position. 
There is no man here to-day who has not the chance so to 
shape his life after he leaves this university that he shall have 
the right to feel, when his life ends, that he has made a 
real success of it; and his making a real success of it does 
not in the least depend upon the prominence of the position 
he holds. 



The spirit lying back of these words explains, 
it seems to me, the real joy he had in his rows with 
the United States Senate — rows which almost 
drove Secretary John Hay to his grave — or in con- 
tests with political bosses like Senator "Tom" 
Piatt. 

I remember an occasion when I was one of a 
luncheon party at the White House — one of those 
never-to-be-forgotten luncheons at which Presi- 
dent Roosevelt was in the habit of collecting all 
sorts of interesting guests from all parts of the 
world. The place of honour was filled by an of- 
ficial of the British Government who was visiting 
the United States for the first time. I was seated 
two or three places away from the President, next 
to Governor Curry of New Mexico, who had been a 
member of Roosevelt's "Rough Riders" in the 
Spanish War, had lived a somewhat tempestuous 
career on the western frontier (where he had shot 
and killed one or two desperadoes in pursuance of 



I02 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

his duty as sheriff), and was now fiUing honourably 
and admirably the high office to which the Presi- 
dent had appointed him. Roosevelt was then 
engaged in one of his periodical contests with the 
Senate over some important legislation of reform 
connected with the "Predatory Trusts" or Con- 
servation — I forget which — and, being much in- 
terested in the contest, I had that morning visited 
the Senate Chamber, where I had happened es- 
pecially to notice Senator Piatt of New York, the 
arch-enemy of all progressive Republicans, sitting 
inert like a death's head, with sunken eyes, and 
appearing to be in the last stages of physical decay. 

Soon after we sat down at the table the President 
leaned over and said: "Lawrence, I want you to 
know Governor Curry; he's well worth knov.ing 
in spite of his homicidal tendencies!" 

"I have already introduced myself to Governor 
Curry, Mr. President," I replied, "and I wish you 
would persuade him to go over to the Senate Cham- 
ber, from which I have just come, and exercise his 
homicidal skill upon the senators from my state!" 

"A good suggestion!" was the President's retort. 
"In fact," he added, showing his teeth in a char- 
acteristic smile, "he could take a pot shot at the 
whole lot of them without doing a great amount 
of harm to the country!" 



STATESMANSHIP 103 

The undisguised amazement of the British guest 
of honour showed that he did not understand, 
as everyone else at the table did, that this was 
merely a symptom of that high good humour in 
which Roosevelt gave and took political blows in 
contests the like of which completely embittered 
President Andrew Johnson, led President Cleveland 
to make serious protests, and even upset the 
equanimity of so philosophical a temperament 
as that of Washington. Roosevelt, however, was 
not a philosopher; he was simply human. He took 
the hard knocks of life, not with resignation but 
with a kind of boyish zest and joy. When attacked 
he hit hard in return, but without bitterness or 
/ancour. And, in spite of his not-infrequent con- 
flicts with Congress, his opponents had a kind of 
subconscious fondness for him even when they were 
exchanging blows. 

E. L. Godkin — the brilliant editor of the New 
York Evening Post and founder of the Nation (the 
present character of which must almost make 
him turn in his grave) — and Theodore Roosevelt 
were at swords' points for many years. Godkin, 
the older man of the two, who professed and doubt- 
less did have a faith in theoretical democracy but 
actually detested democratic affiliations and as- 
sociations, deplored in ''young Theodore" the 



io| IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

tendencies which he thought he saw toward jingo- 
ism and ^'practical poHtics"; above all, he could not 
tolerate Roosevelt's perfectly open and frank con- 
ferences with ''Boss" Piatt of New York State. 
On the other hand, Roosevelt regarded Godkin as 
the archetype of the uncompromising mugwump 
and unpractical idealist who thought that the seven 
or eight million citizens of New York could be 
governed exactly as he governed the subscribers to 
his newspapers, that is by admirably written mes- 
sages and semi-satirical essays composed in the 
seclusion of a private sanctum. I am a little du- 
bious, therefore, as to what Theodore Roosevelt's 
comment would be if he could hear me say, as I 
now proceed to, that I think Mr. Godkin, without 
knowing it of course, defined Theodore Roosevelt's 
philosophy as well as it could possibly be defined in 
so brief a compass. In an essay entitled "Crimi- 
nal Politics," first printed in 1890 in the North 
American Review^ Mr. Godkin says: 

Politics is a practical art. It deals with men as they are, 
and not as we wish them to be. There is hardly one of us 
who, if he had the power of peopling New York anew, would 
not make an immense number of changes among its present 
inhabitants. But the problem before the wise and good is 
simply how to give the present inhabitants, such as they 
are, with all their imperfections on their heads, the best at- 
tainable government. 



STATESMANSHIP ' 105 

Theodore Roosevelt never made any claim to 
be either wise or good — although the universal 
testimony of his fellow citizens, now that he is 
gone, is that he was both. But he did profoundly 
believe in dealing with men as they are and he 
strove for the best attainable government that 
imperfect mankind is capable of organizing in a 
democracy where the good, the bad, and the indif- 
ferent must somehow manage to work together. 

This was the constant political background — 
steadily growing more distinct as his life developed 
— of his statesmanship. Only in the reflection and 
perspective of that background may the achieve- 
ments of his genius as a statesman be intelligently 
measured and estimated. 

What were some of those achievements ? I shall 
try to interpret the most important in the following 
categorical fashion. 

NJTIONJLISM.—Tht basic doctrine of 
Roosevelt's philosophy of statesmanship, the doc- 
trine that ran like an always-visible golden thread 
through the entire fabric of his words and acts as a 
citizen and publicist, was Nationalism. His be- 
lief in a strong and virile development of national 
character and national action will be found in his 
very earliest utterances. It is sometimes thought 
that his urgency of what, during the las^four years 



io6 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

of his life, he called *'one hundred-per-cent Ameri- 
canism" was suggested to him by the dangers that 
threatened the unity if not the very existence of 
the American people during the dark days of the 
European war. But he had given expression to the 
same creed in almost the same words in the first 
book he ever published. When he was twenty- 
two years old he wrote his "Naval History of the 
War of 1812." It is so sound and fair a piece of 
historical writing that it has been adopted, I be- 
lieve, by the British Admiralty as a standard 
authority on the naval battles of the first struggle 
of the English-speaking people to establish free- 
dom of the seas. Take the following passage for 
example from that naval history: 

They [certain aspects of the War of 181 2] teach nothing 
new; it is the old, old lesson, that a miserly economy in 
preparation may in the end involve a lavish outlay of men 
and money, which, after all, comes too late to more than 
offset partially the evils produced by the original short- 
sighted parsimony. . . . The necessity for an efficient 
navy is so evident that only our almost incredible short- 
sightedness prevents our at once preparing one. 

Does this not sound as if Roosevelt had written 
it in 191 5 when, as a man nearly sixty years of age, 
he was laboriously endeavouring to arouse his 
fellow countrymen to the paramount duty and 
necessity of national preparedness? 



STATESMANSHIP 107 

This same doctrine was expressed to me in a letter 
which he wrote from the White House in January, 
1903. It was in reply to one I had written about 
the judicial settlement of international disputes, 
saying that I believed that, in the last analysis, 
they must rest on the physical power of the court 
to make them effective. He wrote as follows : 

Good for you! Important though it is that we should get 
the Hague Tribunal to act in this case, where it can properly 
act, it is very much more important that we have a first- 
class navy and an efficient, though small, army. No Hague 
Court will save us if we come short in these respects. 

While I was talking over the war situation with 
Roosevelt one evening in the summer of 191 7 in 
the north room at Sagamore Hill he said two things 
which seemed to me worth jotting down at the 
time as typical expressions of his belief in the neces- 
sity of a strong physical basis for both the individ- 
ual and the nation. 

The first was a reply which he said he once made 
to a boy who expressed the fear that he might be 
taken for a *' goody-goody" if he followed a certain 
course that seemed to be called for by ethical 
principles. " Be always ready to fight if necessary. 
If you are ready to fight, you can be as good as 
you please and nobody is likely to complain." 

The second was this succinct statement with re- 



io8 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

gard to national vigour: ''A race must do something 
else besides work, fight, and breed; but if it does 
not do these three it will never live to do anything 
else." 

It was this conviction of the righteousness of 
national vigour and of national self-defense that 
led him, when Assistant Secretary of the Navy — 
in opposition to the wishes and almost in violation 
of the definite orders of his chief, Secretary Long — 
to prepare the American Navy for the hostilities 
with Spain which he foresaw more clearly than 
most of his superiors in office. He did this by 
framing an important Personnel Bill, by accumu- 
lating ammunition, by encouraging the Navy in 
gunnery practice, and by distributing ships and 
supplies in such a way that the decisive victories 
of Admirals Dewey and Sampson were assured. 
It was this conviction that led him, when President, 
to send the Battle Fleet around the world in 1907, 
a feat of naval seamanship unparalleled before or 
since. The foreign experts said that it could not 
be done; that to send a Battle Fleet across the 
high seas, with all the attendant ships necessary 
for its maintenance, and to manoeuvre it through 
distant straits and into unaccustomed harbours, 
would inevitably end in disaster. The dramatic 
and complete success of this unprecedented ad- 



STATESMANSHIP 109 

venture did more to convince the European nations 
of the possibiUties of efficiency in a self-governing 
democracy than untold volumes of blue books and 
state papers. 

I speak with some confidence of Roosevelt's 
purpose in sending the Battle Fleet round the 
world because he talked somewhat fully to me 
about it — as will be seen from a passage in a letter 
which he wrote to me from Oyster Bay on August 
29, 1907. It is proper, by the way, to interpolate 
the fact that the New York Sun, in those days, was 
under a different proprietorship and policy from 
those under which it is published to-day. Its pres- 
ent proprietor is Frank Munsey, a friend and sup- 
porter of Roosevelt, who bought the paper several 
years after the following letter was written: 

There has been one extraordinary development during the 
last few days. I had not supposed that the Su7i could sur- 
prise me. I know that there was no form of attack upon me 
which it would hesitate to make, and I also know that there 
was no type of corruption which would cause it even to turn 
a hair. But even corrupt men sometimes have other virtues 
and I had supposed that the Sun would remain loyal to its 
past in supporting the Navy and in refusing to sanction an 
attack upon the Administration which would cause the coun- 
try discredit in foreign eyes. But the Wall Street campaign 
(I hate the term but I do not know what other to use) is so 
violent that it really looks as if they would go to almost any 
length. Upon my word I have never seen labour leaders 
go to greater extremes. They have actually taken to as- 



no IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

sailing the plan for sending the Battleship Fleet to the Pa- 
cific. Would it be of sufficient interest to have your brother 
and you come out here for lunch any day that suits you 
so that I can put before you in full all the reasons for the 
step? They have developed very rapidly. 

It is hardly necessary to say that this invitation 
was promptly accepted. The reasons that Roose- 
velt gave me for his great naval venture were 
three in number: 

First: As has already been intimated, he believed 
that the Navy is our first Hne of defence. He 
wished to have it not only powerful but maintained 
in a constant state of the highest efficiency. He 
wished both officers and men to have as nearly as 
possible the experience which they would undergo 
in fighting and manoeuvring on the high seas. He 
felt that such a voyage would produce a spirit 
of confidence and of practical skill such as could 
be developed in no other way. 

Second: He wanted to impress the country with 
the virtues and the capacities of a great navy. 
He knew that the best way to get American 
public opinion to support his policies for a strong 
navy was to arrest the attention and arouse the 
enthusiasm of the country in a dramatic fashion. 

Third, and perhaps most important of all: He 
profoundly desired to maintain peace between 



STATESMANSHIP in 

Japan and the United States whose relations 
at that time were strained, owing to the situation 
in CaHfornia. He had insisted that the real rights 
of the Japanese in California should be respected, 
but he was equally determined to insist that the 
Japanese should respect the United States. *'It 
is," he said, ''rightly considered a great compli- 
ment for a naval fleet to visit a foreign country. 
For that reason, as a token of American friendli- 
ness for the Japanese people, I have directed the 
fleet to make its first important call upon Japan. 
I hope in this way to give the Japanese a visible 
sign of our friendship. At the same time, I want 
to impress upon them the fact that if the United 
States should ever be compelled to fight at sea its 
naval power is one to be respected." 

This visit of the Fleet to Japan was not in the 
slightest degree a threat, nor did Roosevelt so re- 
gard it. It was a visit of friendship — but made 
under such conditions as to strengthen the dignity 
of the United States and Japan's respect for the 
power and determination of the American people. 
In a word, it put into visible form the doctrine 
which he expressed in one of those aphorisms that 
have become inseparably connected with his name: 
'' Speak softly, but carry a big stick." 

At the same time he was somewhat anxious about 



112 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

the Japanese situation. There was and is a chau- 
vinist or jingo party in Japan just as there is a 
chauvinist or jingo faction in the United States. 
If Japan intended to make war, Roosevelt intended 
to be prepared for it and he told me that his in- 
structions were that the Fleet was always to be 
prepared for action no matter where it was. He 
did not propose to have anybody "pull a gun" on 
him and tell him to throw up his hands. He said 
that in an official speech privately addressed to a 
group of higher officers of the Fleet he had told 
them if war came and any commander lost a ship 
because he was surprised or unprepared he might 
just as well never come home himself. 

What the effect of this voyage was upon the 
Japanese Government I do not of my own knowl- 
edge know, but I can testify that the Germans 
were particularly impressed. In 1910, during 
Roosevelt's memorable tour through Europe, I 
was present at a reception given to him jointly 
by our naval and our military attaches in Berlin. 
The guests, with three or four exceptions, were 
distinguished officers of the Kaiser's army and 
navy. The naval men in particular did not con- 
ceal their eagerness to meet the man who had 
performed a military deed at sea which they had 
regarded, when it was undertaken, as the fool- 



STATESMANSHIP 113 

hardy venture of an inexperienced braggart. More 
than one of them said to me that such an achieve- 
ment was a stroke of genius and they Hterally 
crowded about Roosevelt eager to shake his hand as 
if he had been a kind of modern Neptune. It was 
perfectly manifest that their respect for him, and for 
the country which he represented, had been enor- 
mously increased by the fact that he had done what 
they, confident in their own skill as seamen, had 
predicted that neither he nor they nor any one else 
could do. It is no detraction from the heroic and 
splendid performance of the American Navy in the 
European war to believe, as I do, that if Mr. 
Roosevelt had been President in 1914, and had 
notified the Kaiser — as he certainly would have 
done — that he would throw the American Navy into 
the struggle the moment the foot of an invading 
German soldier was set upon the soil of Belgium 
the world would have been spared much of the 
bloodshed of the past four years and much of the 
chaos of the present day. 

But Theodore Roosevelt's nationalism was not 
exclusive of internationalism; it was, rather, com- 
plementary to it. He believed that the nations 
of the earth could not and should not live together 
as members of one family like a gigantic Brook 
Farm or a Oneida Community but as independent 



114 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

and strongly developed families in a well-organized 
neighbourhood. He used to say that a man who 
professes to love all other families as much as he 
loves his own is likely not only to be a failure as a 
husband and father but also to be an undesirable 
neighbour. "Keep your eye on such a man," he 
once remarked to me; "he is not only foolish but he 
is liable to be dangerous." Roosevelt had no 
patience with the communistic vagaries of the 
French revolutionary philosophers. While so- 
cially and economically he was much more demo- 
cratic than Hamilton or even, I venture to think, 
than Washington, he liked them better and trusted 
them more than Jefferson because of Jefferson's 
flirtations with the unpractical and closet idealists 
of the First French Republic. 

In trying to interpret Mr. Roosevelt's national- 
ism I do not know how I can do better than to 
quote a passage from his "Life of Gouverneur 
Morris," in the American Statesmen Series. It 
was written when he was twenty-nine years old : 

Jefferson led the Democrats to victory only when he had 
learned to acquiesce thoroughly in some of the fundamental 
principles of Federalism, and the government of himself and 
his successors was good chiefly in so far as it followed out 
the theories of the Hamiltonians; while Hamilton and the 
Federalists fell from power because they could not learn the 
one great truth taught by Jefferson — that in America a 



STATESMANSHIP 115 

statesman should trust the people, and should endeavour 
to secure to each man all possible individual liberty, confi 
dent that he will use it aright. The old-school JefFersonian 
theorists believed in a "strong people and a weak govern- 
ment." Lincoln was the first who showed how a strong peo- 
ple might have a strong government and yet remain the 
freest on earth. He seized — half unwittingly — all that was 
best and wisest in the traditions of Federalism; he was the 
true successor of the Federalist leaders; but he'grafted on their 
system a profound belief that the great heart of the nation 
beat for truth, honour, and liberty. 

This estimate of Lincoln, made before Roose- 
velt was thirty years old, became stronger and 
stronger during his life. He had a kind of divine 
reverence for Lincoln. He once told me that 
whenever he was facing a puzzling problem oi 
action he would ask himself: "What would Lincoln 
have done in such a case V' — and would then try to 
shape his course according to what he believed 
would have been Lincoln's example. 

During the Progressive campaign In 191 2 Roose- 
velt made a speech entitled "The New National- 
ism" which he later expounded by other speeches 
afterward collected and published in a fairly good- 
sized volume. These pronouncements at once at- 
tracted the attention of the country and created 
almost a furore of public discussion. It was said 
by his opponents that the theories and proposals 
in these speeches were subversive of the Constitu- 



ii6 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

tion, that Roosevelt wished to alter the very struc- 
ture of our government. His proposals, however, 
except in some minor details, were not at all new or 
radical when measured by his utterances and acts 
over a long period of years. They were simply a 
restatement, in more elaborate form, of the thought 
expressed in the foregoing quotation from the Life 
of Morris. He wished to show^ that a strong cen- 
tralized government is not only compatible with 
but necessary to the protection of popular rights 
and even-handed justice in a representative democ- 
racy. Provided that the people have the free 
and untrammelled right to select their representa- 
tives at the ballot box, their best protection, he 
believed, lies not in the diffusion but in the con- 
centration of power coupled with direct responsi- 
bility to the people for the exercise of that power. 
This brings me logically to what I believe was 
the next most important article in his creed of 
statesmanship: 

POLITICAL, INDUSTRIAL, AND SOCIAL 

REFORM.— \Yhi\e he was an ardent Nationalist 
and believed in a centralized government in which 
the ablest men were given great responsibilities and 
held to strict accountability, he recognized that as 
efficiency is a greater power for good so corruption 



STATESMANSHIP 117 

is a greater power for evil in a strongly centralized 
government. He therefore endeavoured not only 
to improve the standards and personnel of govern- 
ment officials but, by what was literally preachii?g 
and exhorting, to arouse a sense of civic responsi- 
bility among the great body of citizens. No Presi- 
dent, probably, has issued more or longer Messages 
to Congress, but while these papers were techni- 
cally addressed to Congress they were really ad- 
dressed to the whole country. He often spoke of 
bis public and official speeches as ''preaching," 
and he more than once said that he put what he 
Had to say in the form of sermons because he had 
such a ''bully pulpit." The result was that he 
attracted to his side and surrounded himself with 
official colleagues and associates who had the same 
enthusiasm and the same high standards that he 

himself had. 

Political service in office took on a different 
meaning under the inspiration of his theory and 
practice. I think it not unfair to say that forty 
years ago a man in public office, particularly of a 
subordinate character, was generally regarded with 
some suspicion by the so-called "better citizens" 
Nintil he had proved himself innocent. It was not 
5in uncommon assumption that every man in pub- 
Uc office took the position because he could get his 



ii8 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

hands and feet in the pubhc trough. This at 
least is my recollection of the political atmosphere 
in 1880 when I cast my first presidential vote for 
Garfield. It was at this date that Roosevelt was 
elected to the New York Legislature. Roosevelt 
did more than any other American, in my judg- 
ment, to modify this attitude completely. At the 
close of his administration the public began to feel, 
as it ought always to feel, that the badge of public 
office is a badge of respect; it began to regard 
Federal officials as well as Federal clerks as it re- 
gards the officers and enlisted men in the Army 
tind the Navy. 

Certainly this was what Mr. Roosevelt wanted 
to accomplish. He believed that a man or a 
woman who works for the Government in any civil 
capacity ought to be actuated by the same patriotic 
motives and regard the service with the same pa- 
triotic respect that prevail in the Army and the 
Navy. No President has done more than did 
Roosevelt to discredit and put out of joint the old 
Jacksonian theory of party government that "To 
the victors belong the spoils." 

Along with this work of political reform he 
undertook, in the face of the most overwhelming 
difficulties, the reform of the industrial corpora- 
tions. He did not believe, to quote the words of 



STATESMANSHIP 119 

President Wilson, that ''the American people are 
living a life of economic serfdom," but he was con- 
vinced that there was altogether too much secret 
and corrupt meddling with politics by the cor- 
porations for their own selfish benefit. He was a 
believer in the corporation as an instrument of in- 
dustry. He did not at all think that badness is an 
essential element of bigness. He had not the slight- 
est objection to the corporations doing a business on 
a gigantic scale, provided that these operations were 
honest, above-board, visible, subject to proper gov- 
ernment control, and based on a just, fair, and civi- 
lized treatment both of employees and of the small 
investor. As a matter of fact, he cordially disliked 
the attitude of the extremists who seemed to fee) 
that the corporations were enemies of society with 
whom there could be no possible basis of associa-* 
tion. 

In February, 1903, while he was struggling to 
obtain Federal legislation to put an end to railway 
rebates, he wrote me a long letter from the White 
House which contained the following paragraph : 

No respectable railroad or respectable shipping business 
can openly object to the Rebate Bill; and the Nelson amend- 
ment and the bill to expedite legislation, to both of which 
there has been most violent opposition, have now been rather 
sullenly acquiesced in. But as soon as the business interests 
showed any symptoms of acquiescence, certain individuals 



I20 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

at once asserted that the legislation was bad, because they 
did not want it unless it frightened the corporations. 

He was not trying to destroy the corporations; 
he was not even trying to frighten them; he was 
trying to cooperate with them in making them real 
servants of society. His differentiation between 
"good" trusts and "bad" trusts was ridiculed at 
the time, but the European war has demonstrated 
the soundness of the principle. Tremendous or- 
ganization is needed to accomplish tremendous 
tasks. The organization is to be judged by its 
spirit, its aims, and its accomplishments — not by 
its size. 

His successful attacks upon the Standard Oil 
Company and the Sugar Trust were not made be- 
cause these organizations were big, but because of 
certain pernicious practices. He could not tolerate 
what one of his colleagues, Senator Beveridge, has 
defined as "invisible government" — that secret 
partnership between "big business" and pliable 
politicians which grew to such huge proportions 
after the Civil War and reached its climax just 
about the time that Mr. Roosevelt became Presi- 
dent. Under his administration the Federal De- 
partment of Commerce and Labour was estab- 
lished and the policy of government regulation of 
railways was greatly strengthened. He was one 



STATESMANSHIP 121 

of the first public men in this country to espouse 
the doctrine of industrial democracy, that is to say, 
the doctrine that the workers and toilers shall not 
only have their proper share of the profits of in- 
dustry but also some voice in the management of 
industry. In this connection it may not be out of 
place for me to quote from a letter that Mr. Roose- 
velt wrote to me in the summer of 1907: 

1 continually get points from the Outlook. If you do not ob- 
ject, I am going to work into one of my speeches your ad- 
mirable little thesis on adding democracy in industry to 
democracy in political rights, education, and religion. You 
have exactly hit upon my purpose, but you phrase my pur- 
pose better than I have ever phrased it myself. 

What the Outlook had said, eliciting this com- 
ment, was that as the Reformation and the 
emigration of the Puritans to the Western Hemi- 
sphere had established the equal rights or freedom 
of men in their religious activities; as the Amer- 
ican Revolution and the Civil War had established 
the equal rights or freedom of men in politics; and 
as the establishment of the American public school 
system had established equal rights or freedom in 
education; so the American people, perhaps halt- 
ingly but with evident purpose, were entering 
upon a movement to establish equal rights or free- 
dom in industry. Equal rights in religion of course 



122 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

does not mean that every man shall be a bishop; 
in politics, that every man shall be a United States 
senator; or in education, that every man shall be a 
<:ollege president. But it does mean that every man 
shall have some kind of a voice in choosing his 
bishop, his senator, or the head of his educational 
system. So the workers who constitute what is 
called labour are not merely to be paid their real 
share of the total product of labour, but they are to 
have some opportunity to determine and regulate 
the conditions under which they shall work. It 
should never be forgotten, I think, that Mr. Roose- 
velt was one of the foremost pioneers in the move- 
ment, now rapidly accelerating, to establish Indus- 
irial Democracy, where all men shall have equal 
rights under the law and where there shall be no 
privileged or special interests exempt from the 
operations of the law. 

CONSERVATION OF NATIONAL RE- 
SOURCES.— The old theory with regard to the 
natural wealth of the United States was that the 
forests and lumber, the water power, the oil wells, 
the coal, and other minerals belong to the private 
owner of the land to exploit and sell as he pleases 
for private profit. Along with this theory ran the 
policy of the Government, undoubtedly desirable 



STATESMANSHIP 123 

and beneficial within proper limits, of giving away 
vast tracts of public land to the pioneer who 
would develop the natural wealth and so contribute 
to the general welfare of the country. 

This system led not only to the concentration 
of riches in private hands but to the rapid exhaus- 
tion of certain forms of national wealth, especially 
lumber-bearing forests. The natural desire for 
quick profits was proving to be more powerful than 
the cautionary motive of preserving our capital 
resources for future generations. If Mr. Roose- 
velt did not invent the term "Conservation of 
National Resources," he was the first great leader 
in this country to espouse and establish the new 
theory with regard to our national wealth. This 
theory is that the Government — acting for the 
people, who are the real owners of public prop- 
erty — shall permanently retain the fee in public 
lands, leaving their products to be developed by 
private capital under leases, which are limited in 
their duration and which give the Government 
complete power to regulate the industrial opera- 
tions of the lessees. 

On June 8, 1908, Mr. Roosevelt, then President, 
appointed a National Conservation Commission. 
This commission made an inventory of our na- 
tional wealth, which was published in 1909. It 



124 MPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVEi^T 

was the first inventory of its kind in history. Gif- 
ford Pinchot, an intimate personal friend and 
official colleague of President Roosevelt's, was 
chairman of the Commission and Mr. Pinchot, 
with the approval and support of Roosevelt, rap- 
idly became the public representative of the Con- 
servation movement. The country has by no 
means yet succeeded in putting an end to the ex- 
traordinary waste of its public wealth. In the 
Atlantic Monthly for March, 1919, Mr. Arthur D. 
Little, an accomplished and able chemical engineer 
of Boston, writes as follows: 

The wastes In lumbering are proverbial, and, as Mark 
Twain said about the weather, we all talk about it, but noth- 
ing is done. With a total annual cut of forty billion feet, 
board-measure, of merchantable lumber, another seventy 
billion feet are wasted in the field and at the mill. In the 
yellow-pine belt the values in rosin, turpentine, ethyl alco- 
hol, pine oil, tar, charcoal, and paper-stock lost in the waste 
are three or four times the value of the lumber produced. 
Enough yellow-pine pulp-w^ood is consumed in burners, or 
left to rot, to make double the total tonnage of paper pro- 
duced in the United States. Meanwhile, our paper-makers 
memorialize the community on the scarcity of paper-stock, 
and pay ^18 a cord for pulp-wood which they might buy for 
^3. It takes many years to produce a crop of wood, and 
wood-waste, which now constitutes from one-half to two- 
thirds of the entire tree, is too valuable a raw material to be 
longer regarded merely as an encumbrance, except by an 
improvident management. 

But the wastes In lumbering, colossal though they are in 



STATESMANSHIP 125 

absolute amount, are trivial compared to the losses which 
our estate has suffered, and still endures, from forest fires. 
The French properly regard as a national calamity the de- 
struction of perhaps a thousand square miles of their fine 
forests by German shells. And yet the photographs that 
they show of this wreck and utter demolition may be repro- 
duced indefinitely on ten million acres of our forest lands, 
swept each year by equally devastating fire for which our own 
people are responsible. You have doubtless already for- 
gotten that forest fire which last autumn, in Minnesota, 
burned over an area half as large again as Massachusetts, 
destroying more than twenty-five towns, killing four hundred 
people, and leaving thirteen thousand homeless. 

Mr. Little is somewhat beside the mark in say- 
ing: ''We all talk about it but nothing is done." 
Something has been done. The most important 
work of President Roosevelt in domestic states- 
manship, next to his injection of moral ideas and 
moral impetus into administrative poHtics, was his 
inauguration and fostering of Conservation. I 
have space only to state that opinion here. The 
reader who is interested will find in the New Inter- 
national Encyclopaedia under the title "Conserva- 
tion" the best brief account, which has come under 
my eye, of the results and purposes of the Conser- 
vation movement inaugurated by Roosevelt with 
the aid of Gifford Pinchot. 

Roosevelt was never greatly interested in mere 
questions of finance, nor in economics on its merely 
statistical side. But the moment that he per- 



126 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

ceived the human relationships of an economic 
question he threw himself into the problem with 
his fullest energies. It was the human aspect 
of Conservation that aroused his championship. 
Some other things that he did, as President, were 
so much more spectacular that there is danger of 
his leadership in Conservation being lost sight of. 
On the contrary, it deserves the fullest study of 
future historians. 

The abject pacifism and the wasteful folly of the 
Chinese with regard to their natural resources 
stirred him about equally and he often referred 
to the lack of patriotic nationalism on the one hand, 
and to private greed in exploiting our national re- 
sources on the other as tendencies which, if per- 
sisted in, would *'Chinafy" the United States. He 
believed that the incentives of private profit and of 
brave and virile pioneering are important factors 
in developing American character and American 
citizenship. But he also believed that they should 
be directed not by the whims of individuals but by 
the common and united determination of all the 
people. 

COLONIAL POLICY,— ^y determining, at the 
close of the Spanish War, that Cuba should not be 
taken over by the United States — as all Europe 



STATESMANSHIP 127 

expected, and as an influential section of his party 
hoped that it would be — but should be given every 
opportunity to govern itself, he established the 
precedent for the colonial policy which the Peace 
Conference of Paris has now embodied in the so- 
called ^^mandatory'' principle, namely, that colonies 
should be administered as a trust for the benefit of 
the inhabitants. It is true that Cuba was set on 
her own feet during the Presidency of McKinley, 
but when under the Piatt Amendment the United 
States intervened in Cuba during the Roosevelt 
Administration there would have been every po 
iitical and many moral justifications for our annexa- 
tion of the island. This Roosevelt would not con- 
sent to. In his autobiography he refers to his 
Cuban policy as follows: 

We made the promise to give Cuba independence; and 
we kept the promise. Leonard Wood was left in as governor 
for two or three years, and evolved order out of chaos, rais- 
ing the administration of the island to a level, moral and ma- 
terial, which it had never before achieved. We also, by 
treaty, gave the Cubans substantial advantages in our mar- 
kets. Then we left the island, turning the government 
over to its own people. After four or five years a revolution 
broke out, during my administration, and we again had to 
intervene to restore order. We promptly sent thither a small 
army of pacification. Under General Barry, order was re- 
stored and kept, and absolute justice was done. The Amer- 
ican troops were then w^ithdrawn and the Cubans reestab- 
lished in complete possession of their own beautiful island? 



128 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

and they are in possession of it now. There are plenty of 
occasions in our history when we have shown weakness or 
inefficiency, and some occasions when we have not been as 
scrupulous as we should have been as regards the rights of 
others. But I know of no action by any other government 
in relation to a weaker power which showed such disinter- 
ested efficiency in rendering service as was true in connection 
with our intervention in Cuba. 

In numerous speeches and addresses he expressed 
his belief in a strong and efficient colonial govern- 
ment, but a government which should be admin- 
istered for the benefit of the colonial people and 
not for the profit of the people at home. It is 
worth while to quote on this subject from a speech 
which Mr. Roosevelt made in Christiania, Norway, 
on May 5, 1910. The occasion was a public dinner 
given in his honour on the evening of the day when 
the celebration was held in recognition of the 
award to him of the Nobel Peace Prize. He had 
made his set and carefully prepared speech in the 
afternoon. At this dinner he spoke unexpectedly 
and wholly extemporaneously, but the address was 
taken down stenographically. In the course of it 
he said: 

I was particularly pleased by what you said about our 
course, the course of the American people, in connection 
with the Philippines and Cuba. I believe that we have the 
Cuban Minister here with us to-night? [A voice: "Yes."i 
Well, then, we have a friend who can check off what I am 



STATESMANSHIP 129 

going to say. At the close of the war of '98 we found our 
army in possession of Cuba, and man after man among the 
European diplomats of the old school said to me: *'0h, you 
will never go out of Cuba. You said you would, of course, 
but that is quite understood; nations don't expect promises 
like that to be kept." 

As soon as I became President, I said: "Now you will see 
that the promise will be kept." We appointed a day when 
we would leave Cuba. On that day Cuba began its existence 
as an independent republic. 

Later there came a disaster, there came a revolution, and 
we were obliged to land troops again, while I was President, 
and then the same gentlemen with whom I had conversed 
before said: "Now you are relieved from your promise; your 
promise has been kept, and now you will stay in Cuba." T 
answered: "No, we shall not. We will keep the promise not 
only in the letter but in the spirit. We will stay in Cuba to 
help it on its feet, and then we will leave the island in better 
shape to maintain its permanent independent existence/'* 
And before I left the Presidency Cuba resumed its career as 
a separate republic, holding its head erect as a sovereign state 
among the other nations of the earth. 

All that our people want is just exactly what the Cuban 
people themselves want — that is, a continuance of order 
within the island, and peace and prosperity, so that there 
shall be no shadow of an excuse for any outside intervention. 

We have in the Philippines a people mainly Asiatic in 
blood, but with a streak of European blood and with the 
traditions of European culture, so that their ideals are largely 
the ideals of Europe. At the moment when we entered the 
islands the people were hopelessly unable to stand alone. 
If we had abandoned the islands, we should have left them a 
prey to anarchy for some months, and then they would have 
been seized by some other Power ready to perform the task 
that we had not been able to perform. 



I30 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Now I hold that it is not worth while being a big nation 
if you cannot do a big task; I care not whether that task 
is digging the Panama Canal or handling the Philippines. 
In the Philippines I feel that the day will ultimately come 
^'hen the Philippine people must settle for themselves 
whether they wish to be entirely independent, or in some 
shape to keep up a connection with uSo The day has not yet 
come; it may not come for a generation or two. 

One of the greatest friends that liberty has ever had, the 
great British statesman, Burke, said on one occasion that 
there must always be government, and that if there is not 
government from within, then it must be supplied from with- 
out. A child has to be governed from without, because it 
has not yet grown to a point when it can govern itself from 
within; and a people that shows itself totally unable to govern 
itself from within must expect to submit to more or less of 
government from without, because it cannot continue to 
exist on other terms — indeed, it cannot be permitted perma- 
nently to exist as a source of danger to other nations. 

Our aim in the Philippines is to train the people so that 
they may govern themselves from within. Until they have 
reached this point they cannot have self-government. I will 
never advocate self-government for a people so long as their 
self-government means crime, violence, and extortion, corrup- 
tion within, lawlessness among themselves and toward others. 
If that is what self-government means to any people, then 
they ought to be governed by others until they can do better. 

In respect to the facts that I have stated and the 
views that I have quoted from Mr. Roosevelt him- 
self, is it not a reasonable conclusion to say that for 
the seven years of his administration as President 
he developed a policy of statesmanship quite new 
in the history of the United States.? 



STATESMANSHIP 131 

THE RUSSO-JAPANESE PEACE.~The 
Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Theodore Roose- 
velt for his acts as a mediator between Russia and 
Japan, which resulted in the Treaty of Portsmouth 
^and the ending of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. 
The prize consisted of a gold medal and forty thou- 
sand dollars. He acknowledged this award in the 
formal address in 191 o at Christiania already re- 
ferred to. Officially it was delivered before the 
Nobel Prize Committee, but actually, it was a pub- 
lic oration spoken in the National Theatre of 
Christiania before an audience of two or three thou- 
sand people. His subject was: *' International 
Peace." At the outset he said: 

The gold medal which formed part of the prize I shall al- 
ways keep, and I shall hand it on to my children as a precious 
heirloom. The sum of money provided as part of the prize, 
by the wise generosity of the illustrious founder of this world- 
famous prize system, I did not, under the peculiar circum- 
stances of the case, feel at liberty to keep. I think it emi- 
nently just and proper that in most cases the recipient of the 
prize should keep, for his own use, the prize in its entirety. 
But in this case, while I did not act officially as President of 
the United States, it was nevertheless only because I was 
President that I was enabled to act at all; and I felt that the 
money must be considered as having been given me in trust 
for the United States. I therefore used it as a nucleus for a 
foundation to forward the cause of industrial peace, as being 
well within the general purpose of your committee; for, in 
our complex industrial civilization of to-day, the peace of 



132 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

righteousness and justice, the only kind of peace worth 
having, is at least as necessary in the industrial world as it 
is among nations. 

Like most of Mr. Roosevelt's acts of statesman- 
ship his course in the settlement of the Russo-Japa- 
nese War was widely, and sometimes acrimoniously, 
discussed at the time. As a matter of fact, what he 
did was a great and, in some respects, a complicated 
achievement, but the principles that he followed 
were simple, natural, and based upon common sense. 

In September, 1908, I wrote an editorial of more 
than ordinary length which endeavoured to inter- 
pret the genesis and results of the Russo-Japanese 
peace treaty. This editorial was questioned at the 
time. As a matter of fact, it was based upon per- 
sonal statements made tome by President Roosevelt, 
and I think it had his entire approval. The Spring- 
field Republican^ an avowed opponent of President 
Roosevelt's foreign policy, had published an article 
in which it said that skilful Russian diplomacy had 
cunningly manipulated Roosevelt so that he had 
become ^'Russia's strongest ally in forcing the 
Japanese to accept what were virtually the Russian 
terms of peace." In the course of my own editorial 
comment the following phrases were employed : 

Our version of President Roosevelt's intervention in behalf 
of peace is exactly contrary to the Y^OY2i\t\s\iy-Re publican 



STATESMANSHIP 133 

version. The desire for peace was not Imposed upon Japan, 
it came from Japan; Russia did not at once see an opportunity 
of employing a conference for the purpose of turning mlhtary 
disaster Into a diplomatic and financial victory; on the con- 
trary, the Idea that peace was essential to Russia's future wel- 
fare was driven Into the minds of an obstinate bureaucracy 
only by the patient arguments of the President. This view 
of the Portsmouth Treaty, In our judgment, has been estab- 
lished by public records and by the processes of simple logic; 
It will be confirmed, we believe, when the time comes for the 
publication of the diplomatic correspondence and state 
papers. By the Intervention of the President not only did 
Japan receive what It was wholly wise for her to accept and 
what she really desired to obtain, but Russia was protected 
from the further disaster into which the folly of her bureau- 
crats and the double dealing of her diplomacy would have 
plunged her. 

On October first, the President, having read my 
editorial, wrote me a letter from the White House 
in which he said: 

Properly speaking, there are no *' state papers" about the 
Portsmouth Treaty on this side of the water. It was done 
on my private initiative, but there Is no reason why you 
should not specifically say that you had access to all the 
original documents with which the President had any connec- 
tion, and that you spi^ak with full knowledge. 

In talking with me, afterward, Roosevelt said: 
"As a matter of fact, in spite of their great naval 
and military victories, the Japanese statesmen — 
not the Japanese people — were sagacious and far- 
seeing enough to know that they were approaching 



134 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

the end of their resources of both men and material 
while Russia's resources were unlimited. The 
Japanese came to me privately and, with some re- 
luctance, expressed this point of view and asked 
me if I could not do something. I said I would try. 
I went to the Russians and pointed out the eco- 
nomic and political folly of continuing the war and 
asked if they would not join in a peace conference 
with the Japanese if I arranged it. They finally 
said: 'Yes, if the Japanese will consent, but we do 
not believe they will. We will come, however, if 
you can persuade them.' I replied that I would 
see what I could do, and [this with his characteristic 
chuckle] all the time I had the Japanese request in 
my breeches' pocket!" 

A characteristic incident happened at the first 
meeting of the Russo-Japanese conference in this 
country. At the luncheon, to which President 
Roosevelt invited the representatives of both na- 
tions, on board the presidential yacht Mayflower, 
at Oyster Bay, Mr. Roosevelt told me that he was 
somewhat puzzled what to do about the delicate 
question of precedence. '*If I took in Count 
Witte," he said, "the Japanese would be offended; 
on the other hand, if I took in Baron Komura it 
would displease the Russians, so when luncheon 
was announced I simply said 'Gentlemen, shall 



STATESMANSHIP 135 

we go into luncheon?'; and we all walked in to- 
gether, pell-mell. I dare say both Russians and 
Japanese were somewhat astounded at this in- 
formality, but they probably put it down to my 
American inexperience in social matters!" 

The Russo-Japanese Peace, which was effected 
almost solely by the strength of Roosevelt's in- 
fluence and personality, was a boon to the two 
contestants, for it saved Russia from the inevitable 
consequences that continued persistence in stupid- 
ity and folly must have entailed while it strength- 
ened Japan in her determination to preserve for 
herself the real fruits both of military victory 
and of a humane and sagacious statesmanship. 
Moreover, it put Roosevelt himself on record as 
an advocate of justice instead of belligerency in 
international relationships. In his address before 
the Nobel Prize Committee in Christiania on 
May 5, 1910, he said on this subject: 

It is earnestly to be hoped that the various governments 
of Europe, working with those of America and Asia, shall set 
themselves seriously to the task of devising some method 
which will accomplish this result. [The establishment of an 
international supreme court of the world.] If I may venture 
the suggestion, it would be well for the statesmen of the 
world, in planning for the erection of this world court, to 
study what has been done in the United States by the Supreme 
Court. I cannot help thinking that the Constitution of the 
United States, notably in the establishment of the Supreme 



136 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Court and In the methods adopted for securing peace and good 
relations among and between the different states, offers cer- 
tain valuable analogies to what should be striven for in order 
to secure, through the Hague courts and conferences, a 
species of world federation for international peace and jus- 
tice. . . . 

Something should be done as soon as possible to check the 
growth of armaments, especially naval armaments, by inter- 
national agreement. No one Power could or should act by 
itself; for it is eminently undesirable, from the standpoint of 
the peace of righteousness, that a Power which really does 
believe in peace should place itself at the mercy of some rival 
which may, at bottom, have no such belief and no intention 
of acting on it. But, granted sincerity of purpose, the Great 
Powers of the world should find no insurmountable difficult^' 
iri reaching an agreement which would put an end to the pres- 
ent costly and growing expenditure on naval armaments. . . . 

It would be a master stroke if those Great Powers, honestly 
))ent on peace, should form a League of Peace, not only to 
keep the peace among themselves, but to prevent, by force if 
necessary, its being broken by others. . . . 

In new and wild communities, where there is violence, an 
honest man must protect himself; and until other means of 
securing his safety are devised, it is both foolish and wicked 
to persuade him to surrender his arms while the men who are 
dangerous to the community retain theirs. He should not 
renounce the right to protect himself by his own efforts until 
the community is so organized that it can effectively relieve 
the individual of the duty of putting down violence. So it 
is with nations. Each nation must keep well prepared to 
defend itself until the establishment of some form of inter- 
national police power, competent and willing to prevent 
violence as between nations. 

The combination might at first be only to secure peace 
within certain definite limits and certain definite conditions; 
but the ruler or statesman who should bring about such a 



STATESMANSHIP 137 

combination would have earned his place in history for all 
time, and his title to the gratitude of all mankind. 

In this statement, made nine years ago, Roose- 
velt was the prophet and advocate of the inter- 
national state of mind that has been produced by 
the World War. 



THE PANAMA CANAL.— The greatest ma- 
terial contribution that Theodore Roosevelt made 
to his country, to his time, and to the world, was 
the Panama Canal. That canal will be his en- 
during monument, and its name, as has been sug- 
gested, might well be changed to "The Roosevelt 
Canal." It is not necessary here to enter into the 
details of its history. For five hundred years 
the project had been discussed. For one hundred 
years England had thought of — some time — under- 
taking it. The French did undertake it — and 
failed. If it had not been for Roosevelt, the world 
would have gone on debating and arguing about 
it for years to come. 

In a previous chapter I have quoted his phrase, 
now known around the world: "I took Panama." 
In those three laconic words he means that he 
acted where others for years had failed to act. 
What he did was simply to seize with courage and 
vigour an opportunity that presented itself. The 



138 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

inhabitants of the State of Panama wanted the 
canal, and they seceded from the RcpubHc of 
Colombia in order to give the United States an 
opportunity to build it. Everybody is satisfied, 
except the people of Colombia, who suffered from 
the greedy proclivities of some of their corrupt poli- 
ticians. I must also except from the category of 
satisfied persons some members of the Wilson Ad- 
ministration who cannot bear to have the name of 
Roosevelt go down in history, in connection with 
the Panama Canal, unblotted and undimmed. 

Roosevelt, I think, felt two great resentments 
against President Wilson. The first and most 
important was a patriotic one, arising from the 
fact that Mr. Wilson opposed by word and act the 
policy of preparedness which Roosevelt felt was 
essential to the safety of our national life during 
the first two years of the European war. The 
other resentment was personal. Mr. Wilson had 
proposed that the United States should pay the 
Republic of Colombia $25,000,000 as a reparation 
for the wrong which she alleged had been done her 
in the building of the Panama Canal. Mr. Roose- 
velt felt that such a payment would be nothing but 
blackmail; that either his course and that of his 
administration was just and right — in which case 
Colombia deserved nothing; or that Colombia had 



STATESMANSHIP 139 

been robbed — and that the only just reparation, 
in logic, would be the entire cession of the canal 
to Colombia. Moreover, if the United States paid 
Colombia ^25,000,000, it would be an acknowledg- 
ment of crime, and a petty and contemptible com- 
pounding of a felony. Of course, he did not for a 
moment believe that any crime had been com- 
mitted. He never was more strenuous than when 
he w^as explaining and defending the action he took 
with regard to Colombia and the secession of Pan- 
ama. He profoundly believed that he had per- 
formed not only an act of service to the world but 
an act of public justice. 

In spite of his deep feeling, his irrepressible 
and buoyant humour enabled him often to see 
.he comic side of the controversy. He once said 
to me that, in a Cabinet meeting, when he was 
reporting his executive action — ^which he describes 
briefly as "the taking of Panama" — and appealing 
for an endorsement of its legal and constitutional 
character, one of the secretaries — I think it was 
Attorney-General Knox— exclaimed ironically: "Oh, 
Mr. President, do not let so great an achievement 
suffer from any taint of legality!" 

In 1914 I happened to be returning from Europe 
with a group of friends on the Imperator — the 
Steamer in which Colonel Roosevelt was crossing 



I40 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

after having been to Spain, to attend the wedding 
of his son Kermit, and to London, to dehver a 
lecture before the Royal Geographical Society 
on his South American explorations. The United 
States Minister to Colombia under the Taft 
Administration was on the steamer and he asked 
me to arrange that he might meet Mr. Roosevelt 
whom he (the Minister), with an incredible opti- 
mism, hoped to persuade to take a favourable view 
of the proposed 25,000,000-dollar payment to 
Colombia. Mr. Roosevelt consented to see the 
Minister. The interview, at which I was present, 
Was a thoroughly lively one. The next day, in 
describing it to one of my steamer companions — 
Mr. William Hamlin Childs, later intimately asso- 
ciated with him in Liberal Republican politics — 
Roosevelt remarked: "You know, Childs, it is said 
that I started a revolution in Panama. The fact is 
there had been fifty revolutions in Panama from 
time to time, but while I was President I kept my 
foot on these revolutions ; so that, when the Panama 
Canal situation arose, it was entirely unnecessary 
for me to start a revolution. I simply lifted my. 
foot!'^ 

In this chapter I have not tried to give a chrono- 
logical history of Roosevelt's statesmanship nor 
to interpret it in the terms of the diplomatist or 



STATESMANSHIP 141 

economist. I have simply attempted to show 
what I fully believe, that both the aims and 
the achievements of his statesmanship — some of 
them immortal so far as world history goes — 
had their source in his intense humanity. Pom- 
posity, artificiality, cunning, secretiveness, and 
selfishness were totally foreign to him. He be- 
lieved that statesmen and nations should meet 
and conduct their affairs on exactly the same plane 
as that upon which neighbours in a community 
stand in their relationship. He talked to ambas- 
sadors and kings as one man talks to -another 
That was the real secret of his powen 



CHAPTER V 
FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

IN HIS autobiography Colonel Roosevelt says: 
*'By far the most important action I took in 
foreign affairs during the time I was President 
related to the Panama Canal." 

With the qualification: "during the time I was 
President" this is doubtless true, although there 
are three things that he did — one while he was 
President, and two after his retirement from that 
office — which had a moral influence or reaction 
upon foreign affairs that entitled them to be ranked 
very close to the Panama achievement. It is prob- 
able that if Roosevelt could read this statement he 
would question it. At any rate, he did not con- 
sider as important enough to mention in his auto- 
biography the actions which I have in mind. He 
performed them in the ordinary course of the day's 
work. Nevertheless, I have always thought they 
made a permanent — an almost incalculable — im- 
pression upon our foreign relations. 

The first of these achievements was the remission 

of the Chinese indemnity; the second was the 

142 



FOREIGN AFFAIRS 143 

speech he made at the Guildhall in London in 
1910; and the third was his stimulating address to 
the French people at the Sorbonne in Paris in 
the same year. 

THE CHINESE INDEMNITY.— As a result 
of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 the United States 
received from China an indemnity of about twenty- 
five million dollars for the damage and dangers 
to American lives and property. The payments 
were being regularly made by China, she having 
accepted the indemnity as a just execution of 
international law. 

In 1906, Dr. Arthur H. Smith — long an American 
missionary, resident in China — made a visit to 
this country. He knew and liked the Chinese, 
and few Europeans or Americans have become 
more familiar with their life, literature, customs, 
and manners. He is the author of two admirable 
books on modern China: "Chinese Characteristics" 
and "Village Life in China." As an old-time 
reader of the Outlook he came to our office to enlist 
our interest in a plan, regarding the Chinese in- 
demnity, which he wished to bring to President 
Roosevelt's attention. 

His plan, which he had carefully worked out 
in detail, was that one half of the Boxer indemnity. 



144 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

say about twelve million dollars, should be given 
back to China on the understanding that she use 
.he money, or its income, for sending Chinese 
3^oung men to American collegiate institutions, 
and for educating certain other young Chinese 
in American institutions in China. 

His point of view was not that of the conven- 
tional missionary. It was really that of the states- 
man. He said that when he first went to China 
the American flag was seen on vessels in every 
harbour, but that now it was rarely visible; that 
America ought to do something to renew her in- 
timate economic, industrial, and commercial re- 
lations and so cement the political friendship which 
had been fostered by Secretary Hay. He believed 
that with a body of young Chinese being graduated 
annually from American institutions, we should 
finally have a great company of influential men 
in China who understood American ways and 
sT^mpathized with the American spirit; that no 
ether way could China and the United States be 
brought together so effectively in their economic 
and political relationship. 

The plan made a strong impression upon my 
father and myself, and my father wrote to the 
President asking whether he would see Dr. Smith. 
Mr. Roosevelt replied appointing a day for the 



FOREIGN AFFAIRS 145 

meeting. It was early in March, 1906 — I think 
the sixth. My father was unable to go to Wash- 
ington, so, at Roosevelt's suggestion, I accompanied 
Dr. Smith and was present at the interview 
which took place in the Red Room. My recol- 
lection is that we first lunched with the President 
and afterward returned for a longer conference 
in the evening. At all events, Roosevelt showed 
his interest by giving Dr. Smith and myself a per- 
sonal interview of much more than ordinary 
length, and the plan, in complete detail, was laid 
before the President by Dr. Smith. The result 
of that conference was that, the following year, 
the remission of the unpaid portion of the indem- 
nity was authorized and the money that would 
have gone to the United States was devoted by 
China to educational purposes. (The complete 
record may be found in House Document No. 1275 
of the second session of the Sixtieth Congress.) 

Ten years after this visit of Dr. Smith to the 
White House I happened to be seated at a Prince- 
ton Faculty Club luncheon beside Dr. Robert 
McNutt McElroy, who had just been selected as 
the first American exchange professor to China, and 
he and I fell into conversation about Dr. Smith's 
part in the indemnity remission. Dr. McElroy 
was so much interested that he expressed a desire 



146 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

to relate the story in his lectures in China. I asked 
him not to do so until I had verified my recollection 
of the incident that had occurred ten years before. 
I accordingly wrote to Mr. Roosevelt at Oyster 
Bay recalling the White House interview which I 
have just described and Mr. Roosevelt replied 
under date of January 24, 1916, as follows: 

My memory agrees with yours about Dr. Arthur H. Smith. 
I had forgotten his name; but I know that it was through 
your father that I first became interested in using that in- 
demnity for educational purposes. The idea was suggested 
to me as you describe it; and then I asked Root to take it up 
jind put it in operation. 

Of course the remission of the Boxer indemnity 
estabhshed Chinese friendship for the American 
people on the firmest kind of basis. But this was 
not the only effect of this action on foreign affairs. 
There is another aspect of the achievement which 
seems worth bearing in mind. 

It is said by many publicists that governments 
cannot have altruistic qualities and motives. In 
two cases, at least, the history of the United 
States shows that governments can, in practice, 
be altruistic. We were empowered to take ^25,- 
000,000 from China in accordance with the best 
standards of international action and we volun- 
tarily gave up half that sum in order to promote 



FOREIGN AFFAIRS 147 

a moral idea. We took Cuba, a rich possession, 
, in the course of a war which, at the very least, 
was a war carried on in accordance with common 
international procedure. Europe, especially Ger- 
many, said it was cant to assert that we made 
war for the benefit of the Cubans, and that our 
chief motive was to gain the splendid prize of 
Cuba. But we gave Cuba back to the Cubans, 
only asking that they keep it in order. 

If there are in history any other two similar 
instances of national altruism, I do not know of 
them. These two historical facts, it seems to 
me, should be kept before the coming generations 
in their studies of the structure of government, 
not in order that we may plume ourselves upon 
our virtue, but in order to show that the moral 
law may be made to work in international practice 
just as it works in the individual practice of the 
citizens of a community. 

These two acts of national morals are in a very real 
sense the acts of President Roosevelt and a product 
of his philosophy of statesmanship. He did not 
merely preach about national morals but somehow 
or other he got national things done on a distinctly 
moral basis ; and he was not a mollycoddle, either ! 

His satisfaction in practical altruism appears 
in the following exchange of notes which I find 



14^ IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

among my papers. On February lo, 1917, 1 wrote 
Roosevelt as follows: 

Everett P. Wheeler, who, as you know, is an old-line Demo- 
crat — and therefore, I suppose, naturally one of your critics — 
has just published a book called ''Sixty Years of American 
Life." In looking it over, at the head of Chapter XII, which 
deals with New York City politics, I find the following quota- 
tion ascribed to you: "Aggressive fighting for the right is 
the noblest sport the world knows." Do you remember 
where and when you said it .? It is delightful to think of doing 
good as a high-class sport. 

To this query Roosevelt replied: 

I remember perfectly using that sentence, but I cannot tell 
you the exact date. It w^as when I w^as Police Commissioner 
and, I think, in connection with an address to some college 
boys. 

THE GUILDHALL SPEECH.— Rooscvdt took 
a sporting chance in making his Guildhall speech, 
which had a more far-reaching, if less direct, effect 
on foreign affairs than the remission of the Chinese 
indemnity. 

Of all the public addresses that Roosevelt made 
during his tour through Egypt and Europe in the 
summer of 1910 — a trip which I shall describe more 
fully in the next chapter — the Guildhall speech 
was, in my judgment, the most striking and nota- 
ble. The occasion was the ceremony in the ancient 
and noble Guildhall, one of the most perfect Gothic 



FOREIGN AFFAIRS 149 

interiors in England, which has historical associa- 
tions of more than five centuries, when he was 
presented by the Corporation of the City of 
London (the oldest corporation in the world) with 
the freedom of the city. In this speech he praised 
the colonial administration of Great Britain in 
Africa and frankly criticized the course of the Brit- 
ish Government then in power in its conduct of the 
protectorate of Egypt. In order to appreciate the 
furore that this speech aroused, his criticism must 
be read in its entirety: 

Now as to Egypt. It would not be worth my while to 
speak to you at all, nor would it be worth your while to listen, 
unless on condition that I say what I deeply feel ought to be 
said. I speak as an outsider, but in one w^ay this is an ad- 
vantage, for I speak without national prejudice. I would 
not talk to you about your own internal affairs here at home, 
but you are so very busy at home that I am not sure whether 
you realize just how things are, in some places at least, 
abroad. At any rate, it can do you no harm to hear the view 
of one who has actually been on the ground, and has informa- 
tion at first hand; of one, moreover, who, it is true, is a sincere 
well-wisher of the British Empire, but who is not English by 
blood, and who is impelled to speak mainly because of his 
deep concern in the welfare of mankind and in the future of 
civilization. Remember also that I who address you am not 
only an American, but a Radical, a real — not a mock— demo- 
crat, and that what I have to say is spoken chiefly because I 
am a democrat, a man who feels that his first thought is 
bound to be the welfare of the masses of mankind, and 
his first duty to war against violence and injustice and 



I50 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

wrong-doing, wherever found; and I advise you only in 
accordance with the principles on which I have myself acted 
as American President in dealing with the Philippines. 

In Egypt you are not only the guardians of your own In- 
terests; you are also the guardians of the Interests of civiliza- 
tion; and the present condition of affairs In Egypt is a grave 
menace to both your empire and the entire civilized world. 
You have given Egypt the best government it has had for at 
least two thousand years — probably a better government 
than It has ever had before; for never in history has the poor 
man In Egypt — the tiller of the soil, the ordinary labourer — 
been treated with as much justice and mercy, under a rule 
as free from corruption and brutality, as during the last 
twenty-eight years." Yet recent events, and especially what 
has happened In connection with and following on the assas- 
sination of Boutros Pasha three months ago, have shown 
that, in certain vital points, you have erred; and it is for you 
to make good your error. It has been an error proceeding 
from the effort to do too much and not too little In the inter- 
ests of the Egyptians themselves; but unfortunately it is 
necessary for all of us who have to do with uncivilized peoples, 
and especially with fanatical peoples, to remember that in 
such a situation as yours in Egypt weakness, timidity, and 
sentimentality may cause even more far-reaching harm than 
violence and injustice. Of all broken reeds, sentimentality 
is the most broken reed on which righteousness can lean. 

In Egypt you have been treating all religions with studied 
fairness and impartiality; and Instead of gratefully acknowl- 
edging this, a noisy section of the native population takes 
advantage of what your good treatment has done to bring 
about an anti-foreign movement, a movement In which, as 
events have shown, murder on a large or a small scale is 
expected to play a leading part. Boutros Pasha was the 
best and most competent Egyptian official, a steadfast up- 
holder of English rule, and an earnest worker for the welfare 
of his countrymen; and he was murdered simply and solely 



FOREIGN AFFAIRS 151 

because of these facts, and because he did his duty wisely, 
fearlessly, and uprightly. The attitude of the so-called 
Egyptian Nationalist party in connection with this murder 
has shown that they were neither desirous nor capable of 
guaranteeing even that primary justice, the failure to supply 
which makes self-government not merely an empty but a 
noxious farce. Such are the conditions; and where the effort 
made by your officials to help the Egyptians toward self- 
government is taken advantage of by them, not to make 
things better, not to help their country, but to try to bring 
murderous chaos upon the land, then it becomes the primary 
duty of whoever is responsible for the government in Egypt 
to establish order, and to take whatever measures are neces- 
sary to that end. 

It was with this primary object of establishing order that 
you went into Egypt twenty-eight years ago; and the chief 
and ample justification for your presence in Egypt was this 
absolute necessity of order being established from without, 
coupled with your ability and willingness to establish it. 
Now, either you have the right to be in Egypt or you have 
not; either it is or it is not your duty to estaMish and keep 
order. If you feel that you have not the right to be in Egypt, 
if you do not wish to establish and to keep order there, why, 
then, by all means get out of Egypt. If, as I hope, you feel 
that your duty to civilized mankind and your fealty to your 
own great traditions alike bid you to stay, then make the fact 
and the name agree and show that you are ready to meet in 
very deed the responsibility which is yours. It is the thing, 
not the form, which is vital; if the present forms of govern- 
ment in Egypt, established by you in the hope that they 
would help the Egyptians upward, merely serve to provoke 
and permit disorder, then it is for you to alter the forms; 
for if you stay in Egypt it is your first duty to keep order, and, 
above all things, also to punish murder and to bring to justice 
all who directly or indirectly incite others to commit murder 
or condone the crime when it is committed. When a people 



[52 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

treat assassination as the corner-stone of self-government, 
it forfeits all right to be treated as worthy of self-govern- 
ment. You are in Egypt for several purposes, and among 
them one of the greatest is the benefit of the Egyptian people. 
You saved them from ruin by coming in, and at the present 
moment, if they are not governed from outside, they will 
again sink into a welter of chaos. Some nation must govern 
Egypt. I hope and believe that you will decide that It is 
your duty to be that nation. 



These frank words aroused more opposition 
in the United States than they did in England. 
His political antagonists at home attacked him 
severely. In effect they said: *'This is just Uke 
the impetuous, impulsive Roosevelt. On an oc- 
casion when the British have arranged to do him 
honour he 'butts in' and presumes to tell them 
how to run their own government!'' 

Whatever else the speech may have been, it was 
not impetuous and impulsive. It was the pre- 
meditated result of careful, considerate, and pain- 
staking preparation. The story is an interesting 
one and throws as much light as any incident in 
his career that I know of upon his methods of 
thought and action, and I shall therefore relate 
it in some detail. 

Just before Roosevelt arrived at Khartum in 
March, 1910, Boutros Pasha, the Prime Minister — 
a Copt, that is an Egyptian Christian, and one of 



FOREIGN AFFAIRS 153 

the best native officials that Egypt has ever pro- 
duced — was openly and foully assassinated by an 
agent of the so-called Egyptian Nationalist party. 
That party consisted of extreme Radicals, mostly 
young, who professed to wish to free Egypt from 
British rule and to establish an independent repub- 
lic. They were the "Sinn Feiners" of the Near East. 
Perhaps "Bolshevists" of the Near East would be 
a better term to apply to them, although the word 
"Bolshevik" had not yet been invented. They 
were both dangerous and foolish; dangerous, be- 
cause they proposed to establish liberty on violence 
and assassination, and foolish, because they did 
not seem to realize that if the British were driven 
out of Egypt that unhappy country would im- 
mediately fall back into the hands of the Turk 
who did not care a fig about the vague and gran- 
diloquent aspirations of the half-baked young 
Nationalists. 

The assassination of Boutros Pasha caused 
almost a panic among the civil and military rep- 
resentatives of Great Britain in Egypt, a panic 
which was augmented by the fact that the Liberal 
Government in London appeared to be shilly- 
shallying about the matter as the Gladstonian 
Government in the eighties shillyshallied over the 
Gordon Relief Expedition which resulted in the 



154 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

death of that heroic soldier and the plunging of 
the Sudan into twelve years of savagery. Lord 
Cromer, one of the greatest colonial administrators 
in British history, had only recently retired from 
the position of British diplomatic agent in Egypt 
and had been succeeded by Sir Eldon Gorst who 
proved to be wholly incapable of dealing with the 
crisis. 

By a curious coincidence I arrived at Khartum 
on the very day, March fourteenth, when Roosevelt 
came into that remarkable tropical city from the 
upper reaches of the Nile. Khartum is a veritable 
British capital, a beautifully appointed modern 
city in the midst of the desert. That evening, or 
possibly the following evening, a dinner was given 
in Roosevelt's honour at the palace of the Gov- 
ernor-General, Sir Reginald Wingate. Sir Reginald 
was absent in Cairo, owing to a temporary illness, 
and his place, both as Governor-General and as 
host, was filled by Slatin Pasha, the famous author 
of *' Fire and Sword in the Sudan," who knew as 
well as any man living the horrors of the period 
when Gordon was assassinated and Khartum fell. 

The subject of general discussion at the dinner, 
for it was uppermost in everyone's mind, was the 
murder of Boutros Pasha. Roosevelt was asked 
what he would do. He said: '^It is very simple. 



FOREIGN AFFAIRS 155 

I would try the murderer at drumhead court 
martial. As there is no question about the facts, 
for his own faction do not deny the assassination, 
he would be found guilty. I would sentence him to 
be taken out and shot; and then if the home govern- 
ment cabled me, in one of their moments of vacil- 
lation, to wait a little while, I would cable in reply: 
'Can't wait; the assassin has been tried and shot.' 
The home government might recall me or impeach 
me if they wanted to, but that assassin would have 
received his just deserts." 

I happened to be sitting next to Colonel Asser. 
a British officer who held a very high and import- 
ant post under the Governor-General. He was a 
tall, blond, red-cheeked Englishman, a type of those 
splendid men who in the awful first weeks of the 
Great War made the British Expeditionary Force 
in Flanders — the immortal '*Contemptibles" — the 
most heroic force that the world has known since 
the days of Thermopylae. When Colonel Roosevelt 
finished speaking Colonel Asser turned to me, and, 
bringing his fist down on the palm of his hand, 
said, with very deep feeling: "By heaven! I 
wish that man were my boss!" Similar senti- 
ments were expressed by others at the table and 
Roosevelt was actually implored to state his 
views of the necessity of strong action in Egypt 



is6 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

to the people at home; home, being, of course, Lon- 
don. All the way down the Nile civil and military 
officers urged him to support their cause when he 
reached London. At Cairo he was asked to make 
a public address before the University of Cairo. 

By this time Egypt was literally aflame with the 
threatening controversy excited by the murder 
of Boutros Pasha. A few of the more timid felt 
that the affair should be allowed to ''blow over" — 
if possible. Their feelings were like those of a 
man who has an ulcerated tooth and who is about 
equally reluctant either to let the tooth stay in 
or to go to the dentist and have it out. Some of 
these reluctant ones urged Roosevelt to omit all 
reference to the murder of Boutros Pasha in his 
speech at the University. He replied: ''Gentle- 
men, I am perfectly willing not to speak at all, 
if you so prefer, but if I do speak I assure you I 
shall speak frankly and openly about this assas- 
sination which seems to me to strike at the very 
roots of law, order, and justice in Egypt." 

He spoke; and in the course of his address he 
said* 

All good men, all the men of every nation whose respect 
Is worth having, have been inexpressibly shocked by the 
recent assassination of Boutros Pasha. It was an even 
greater calamity for Egypt than it was a wrong to the in- 



FOREIGN AFFAIRS 157 

dividual himself. The type of man which turns out an 
assassin is a type possessing all the qualities most alien to 
good citizenship — the type which produces poor soldiers in 
time of war and worse citizens in time of peace. Such a man 
stands on a pinnacle of evil infamy; and those who apologize 
for or condone his act; those who, by word or deed, directly 
or indirectly, encourage such an act in advance, or defend it 
afterward, occupy the same bad eminence. 

The result was electrical. He was cheered to 
the echo by his audience. His fearlessness strength- 
ened the hands of those officials who wanted to be 
backed up in maintaining law and order, and he 
was again urged by influential and important men 
to carry this message of upholding the moral law, 
by force if necessary, to the home government 
in London. Thanked on every hand for the help 
he had given to the force of strong and good gov- 
ernment in Egypt and implored on every hand to 
present the needs of the British representatives 
in Egypt to the English people, he consented to do 
so. He wrote his Guildhall speech during his 
journey of six or eight weeks through Europe. 
He literally brooded over it. He consulted per- 
sonal friends and British statesmen about it, and 
before it was delivered, men like Lord Cromer, 
Sir Edward Grey, Mr. Asquith, and, I think. Lord 
Kitchener, knew what he was going to say. He 
sought and accepted suggestions as to form and 



158 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

phraseology. This I know, because at Rooseveh's 
request I read the speech two weeks before it was 
dehvered and ventured some minor suggestions of 
my own. 

The stage setting of the Guildhall speech was a 
brilliant one. On the dais at one end of the hall 
sat the Lord Mayor and the Lady Mayoress. 
The special guests of the occasion were conducted 
by ushers, in robes and carrying maces, down a 
long aisle, flanked with spectators on either side, 
and up the steps of the dais where they were pre- 
sented. Their names were called out at the begin- 
ning of the aisle and the audience applauded little 
or much, as the ushers or guests moved along, 
according to the popularity of the newcomer. 
Thus John Burns and A. J. Balfour were greeted 
with enthusiastic hand-clapping and cheers, al- 
though they belonged of course to opposite parties. 
The Bishop of London; Lord Cromer, who deserved 
to be called the maker of modern Egypt; Sargent, 
the painter; and Sir Edward Grey, Secretary of 
State for Foreign Affairs, were among those greeted 
in this way. In the front row on one side of the 
dais were seated the Aldermen of the City, in their 
red robes; and various officials, in wigs and gowns, 
lent to the scene an aspect curiously antique to the 
American eye. 



FOREIGN AFFAIRS 159 

My seat was on the dais, from which I could 
easily observe the great audience. At the outset 
of Mr. Roosevelt's address it was obvious that the 
frankness of his utterance, his characteristic at- 
titude and gestures, and the pungent quality of 
his oratory startled his audience, accustomed to 
the more conventional methods of public speaking, 
but he soon captured and carried his hearers with 
him, as was indicated by the marks of approval 
printed in the verbatim report of the speech in 
the London Times. It is no exaggeration to say 
that the speech for a week or more was the talk 
of England — in clubs, in homes, and in the news- 
papers. There was some criticism, especially in 
the papers supporting the Liberal party then 
in power. But the best and most influential 
public opinion, while recognizing the unconven- 
tionality of Roosevelt's course, heartily approved 
of both the matter and the manner of the speech. 

The London Times said : 

Mr. Roosevelt has reminded us in the most friendly way of 
what we are at least in danger of forgetting, and no impatience 
of outside criticism ought to be allowed to divert us from con- 
sidering the substantial truth of his words. 

The Daily Telegraph (after referring to Mr. 
Roosevelt as "a practical statesman who combines 



i6o IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

with all his serious force a famous sense of hu- 
mour") expressed the opinion that: 

His candour is a tonic which not only makes plain our 
immediate duty but helps us to do it. In Egypt as in India 
there is no doubt as to the alternative he has stated so 
effectively: we must govern or go; and we have no intention 
of going. 

The Pall Mall Gazette's view was that : 

Mr. Roosevelt delivered a great and memorable speech — 
a speech that will be read and pondered over throughout thel 
world. 

The London Spectator, calling the speech the 
chief event of the week, remarked : 

Timid, fussy, and pedantic people have charged Mr. Roose- 
velt with all sorts of crimes because he had the courage to 
speak out, and had even accused him of unfriendliness to this 
country because of his criticism. Happily the British people 
as a whole are not so foolish. Instinctively they have recog- 
nized and thoroughly appreciated the good feeling of Mr. 
Roosevelt's speech. . . . His speech is one of the greatest 
compliments ever paid to a people by a statesman of another 
country. . . . He has told us something useful and 
practical and has not lost himself in abstraction and plati- 
tude. . . . We thank Mr. Roosevelt once again for 
giving us so useful a reminder of our duty. 

These sentiments of approval were repeated 
in a great number of letters which Mr. Roosevelt 



FOREIGN AFFAIRS i6i 

received from men and women in all walks of life. 
As I was in charge of his affairs at the time this 
correspondence came under my eye. There were 
some abusive letters, chiefly anonymous, but the 
predominating tone of the correspondence is 
fairly illustrated by the following: 

Allow me, an old colonist in his eighty-fourth year, to thank 
you most heartily for your manly address at the Guildhall 
and for your life work in the cause of humanity. If I ever 
come to the great republic I shall do myself the honour of 
seeking an audience of your excellency. I may do so on my 
looth birthday! With best wishes and profound respect. 

The envelope of this letter was addressed: "His 
Excellency Govern-or-Go Roosevelt." That the 
Daily Telegraph and ''the man in the street" should 
independently seize upon this salient point of the 
address — the ''govern-or-go" theory — is significant. 

The effect of the Guildhall speech upon the 
Government was quite as marked as upon the 
people at large. The Asquith Government then 
in power was inclined to be anti-imperialistic, 
but in 191 1, as a direct result of the public senti- 
ment aroused by Roosevelt's Guildhall speech, 
the Government sent Lord Kitchener to Egypt 
as Consul-General, and with his well-known vigour 
of action he suppressed the bolshevist tendencies 
of the young Nationalist party and reestablished 



i62 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Great Britain's authority and prestige. If some 
such man as Kitchener had not accompHshed this 
during the years 1911-14 it is highly probable that, 
taking advantage of Egypt's disorganization, the 
Turks and Germans might have captured the 
Suez Canal thus cutting off one of the main arteries 
of British military existence in the war. It may, 
therefore, be said that Roosevelt, by his Guildhall 
speech, made a great contribution to the final 
success of the Allies. 

THE SORBONNE SPEECH.— On his way to 
London, from Egypt, Mr. Roosevelt passed 
through Paris, where on April 23, 1910, he gave 
a lecture at the Sorbonne, by invitation of the 
officials of the University of Paris. It was an 
appeal for the highest type of citizenship based 
upon the simple but eternal and universally recog- 
nized laws of individual and social morality. Said 
Mr. Roosevelt: 



The success of republics like yours and like ours means the 
glory, and our failure the despair, of mankind; and for you 
and for us the question of the quality of the individual citizen 
is supreme. . . . I speak to a brilliant assemblage; I speak 
in a great university; which represents the flower of the high- 
est intellectual development; I pay all homage to intellect, 
and to elaborate and specialized training of the intellect; 
and yet I know I shall have the assent of all of you present 



FOREIGN AFFAIRS 163 

when I add that more important still are the commonplace, 
every-day qualities and virtues. 

With his characteristic frankness, Mr. Roosevelt 
attacked race suicide, in speaking to a nation whose 
birth-rate was decreasing: 

Even more important than ability to work, even more im- 
portant than ability to fight at need, is it to remember that 
the chief of blessings for any nation is that it shall leave its 
seed to inherit the land. It was the crown of blessings in 
Biblical times; and it is the crown of blessings now. The 
greatest of all curses is the curse of sterility, and the severest 
of all condemnations should be that visited upon wilful ster- 
ility. The first essential in any civilization is that the man 
and the woman shall be father and mother of healthy chil- 
dren, so that the race shall increase and not decrease. 

In this address he also stated succinctly his 
position with regard to the relations of labour and 
capital: 

My position as regards the moneyed interests can be put 
in a few words. In every civilized society property rights 
must be carefully safeguarded. Ordinarily, and in the great 
majority of cases, human rights and property rights are 
fundamentally and in the long run identical; but when it 
clearly appears that there is a real conflict between them, 
human rights must have the upper hand, for property belongs 
to man and not man to property. 

A passage which elicited enthusiastic ap- 
plause was the following in which he paid his 



i64 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

tribute to the man who strenuously struggles or 
against all obstacles: 

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points ou 
how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deed 
could have done them better. The credit belongs to th 
man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dus; 
and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, an^, 
comes short again and again — because there is no effort with 
out error and shortcoming — but who does actually strive t 
do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the grea 
devotions; who spends himself In a worthy cause; who, at thl 
best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, an| 
who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatb 
so that his place shall never be with those cold and timi 
souls who know neither victory nor defeat. 

But the most significant passage of the addres; 
the truth of which has been more than substant 
ated by the chaos of Russian bolshevism, was whcj 
he had to say about the danger of extreme sociaj 
ism based on class war: 



I am a strong individualist by personal habit, inheritam 
and conviction; but it Is a mere matter of common sense 
recognize that the State, the community, the citizens actlidt 
together, can do a number of things better than If they weM 
left to individual action. The Individualism which finds 5 
expression In the abuse of physical force Is checked very eai/ s 
in the growth of civilization, and we of to-day should. In c|r|.\ 
turn, strive to shackle or destroy that individualism whia ii 
triumphs by greed and cunning, which exploits the weak yjP 
craft instead of ruling them by brutality. We ought to p] 



FOREIGN AFFAIRS 165 

with any man in the effort to bring about justice and the 
equality of opportunity; to turn^the tool user more and more 
into the tool owner; to shift burdens so that they can be more 
equitably borne. The deadening effect on any race of the 
adoption of a logical and extreme socialistic system could 
not be overstated; it would spell sheer destruction; it would 
produce grosser wrong and outrage, fouler immorality, than 
any existing system. But this does not mean that we may 
not with great advantage adopt certain of the principles pro- 
fessed by some given set of men who happen to call them- 
selves Socialists; to be afraid to do so would be to make a 
mark of weakness on our part. 



The effect of this address on French public 
Dpinion was remarkable. Not long after its de- 
livery I received from a friend, an American 
imilitary officer stationed in Paris, a letter from 

hich I quote the following passage: 



k 



I find that Paris is still everywhere talking of Mr. Roose- 
velt. It was a thing almost without precedent that this 
ilase city kept up its interest in him without abatement for 
jnght days; but that a week after his departure should still 
md him the main topic of conversation is a fact which has 
mdoubtedly entered into Paris history. The Temps, one 
)f the foremost daily newspapers of Paris, has had fifty-seven 
[thousand copies of his Sorbonne address printed and distrib- 
jited free to every school-teacher in France and to many 
)ther persons. The socialist or revolutionary groups and 
■)ress had made preparations for a monster demonstration on 
4ay first. Walls were placarded with incendiary appeals 
ind their press was full of calls to arms. M. Briand [the 
^rime Minister] flatly refused to allow the demonstration, 



i66 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

and gave orders accordingly to M. Lepine [the Chief of 
Police]. For the first time since present influences have 
governed France — certainly the first time in fifteen years — 
the police and the troops were authorized to use their arms 
in self-defence. 

The result of this firmness was that the leaders counter- 
manded the demonstration, and there can be no doubt that 
many lives were saved and a new point gained in the possibil- 
ity of governing Paris as a free city, yet one where order 
must be preserved — votes or no votes. 

Now this stiff attitude of M. Briand and the Conseil is 
freely attributed, in intelligent quarters, to Mr. Roosevelt. 
French people say it is a repercussion of his visit — of his Sor- 
bonne lecture — and that, going away, he left in the minds of 
these people some of that intangible spirit of his; in other 
words, they felt what, in a similar emergency, he would have 
felt, and, for the first time in their lives, showed a disregard 
of voters when they were bent upon mischief. It is rather 
an extraordinary verdict, but it has seized the Parisian im- 
agination, and I, for one, believe it is correct. 

If the international socialists had got control 
of Paris in 19 lo they might have wielded the in- 
fluence which they sought to exert in the early 
days of the war in behalf of a ''Brest-Litovsk" 
peace between France and Germany. Such a 
peace would have meant the extinction of France, 
and so it has always seemed to me that Roosevelt 
contributed personally something to the vigour of 
the French people. 

While Roosevelt was lying ill in the Roosevelt 
Hospital in the city of New York in November, 



FOREIGN AFFAIRS 167 

191 8, with what at the time was supposed to be a 
severe attack of sciatica — an illness which was 
followed by his death in the following January— 
I wrote him this letter: 



Please accept this word of sympathy and best wishes. 
Some years ago I had a severe attack of sciatica which 
kept me in bed a good many days; in fact, it kept me 
in an armchair night and day some of the time because 
I could not lie down, so I know what the discomfort and 
pain are. 

I want to take this opportunity also of sending you my 
congratulations. For I think your leadership has had very 
much to do with the unconditional surrender of Germany. 
Last Friday night I was asked to speak at the Men's Club of 
the Church of the Messiah in this city and they requested me 
to make you the subject of my talk. I told them something 
about your experience in Egypt and Europe in 1910 and said 
what I most strongly believe, that your address at the Sor- 
bonne — in strengthening the supporters of law and order 
against red Bolshevism — and your address in Guildhall — 
urging the British tc govern or go — contributed directly 
to the success of those two governments in this war. If 
Great Britain had allowed Egypt to get out of hand instead 
of, as an actual result of your Guildhall speech, sending Kit- 
chener to strengthen the feebleness of Sir Eldon Gorst, the 
Turks and Germans might have succeeded in their invasion 
and have cut off the Suez Canal. So you laid the ground for 
preparedness not only in this country but in France and 
England. 

I know it was a disappointment to you not to have 
an actual share in the fighting but I think you did a greater 
piece of work in preparing the battleground and the battle 
spirit. 



i68 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
In reply he sent me this note : 

That's a dear letter of yours, Lawrence. I thank you foi 
it and I appreciate it to the full. 

This was the last exchange of letters I had witl 
him. 



CHAPTER VI 

A MAN OF LETTERS 

rHE first thing that strikes the ordinary ob- 
server about Roosevelt's work as a man of 
itters is its prodigious volume. The list of books 
^hich he published — exclusive of pamphlets, oc- 
asional addresses, and uncollected magazine ar- 
icles — numbers at least thirty separate titles, 
lis ''Life of Gouverneur Morris" is about fifty 
r sixty thousand words in length; his *' African 
rame Trails" about two hundred thousand words. 
t is, to be sure, a very rough estimate, but let 
s suppose that his books average seventy-five 
lousand words. This means that he wrote two 
lillion and a half words in permanent literary 
)rm. 

One of his official secretaries has said that, during 
is governorship and Presidency, Roosevelt wrote 
ne hundred and fifty thousand letters. Suppose 
ley averaged one hundred words each — I myself 
ave received scores from him that were very 
mch longer than that; this amounts to fifteen 

lillion words more and this volume of material 

169 



170 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

covers only the epistolary side, a comparatively 
brief part of his active career, and on the literary 
side only that portion of his writing which he 
himself felt might be put into permanent form. 
A man who does two thousand words of creative 
work day in and day out for every working day 
of the year is performing a portentous job from 
the brain-worker's point of view. If the estimate 
that Roosevelt produced eighteen millions of 
written words in his lifetime is at all reasonable, 
that alone would represent the work of thirty years 
of the lifetime of a literary man. Roosevelt had 
about forty years of active work, assuming that 
he began his productive activity when he published 
*'The Naval War of 1812" not long after he had 
passed his twentieth year. Thus, in his forty 
working years he produced as a writer what in 
amount, at least, would have been a creditable 
fruitage of thirty years' labour by a professional 
man of letters who did nothing else but write. 
Writing, however, was merely one of Roosevelt's 
avocations. While all this production of written 
words was going on he was also soldiering, explor- 
ing, travelling, governing, speaking, studying, and 
reading. What he did, therefore, as a man of letters 
is, in the first place, an astounding feat of physi- 
cal endurance. 



A MAN OF LETTERS 171 

I am not competent — nor have I the space — 
to undertake here a Hterary criticism of his standing 
as a man of letters. The very fact that he was so 
profuse in his writing makes some of it diffuse. 
It varies very much in merit, but it must be remem- 
bered that he did not have the leisure for incubation, 
consideration, and revision which the professional 
man of letters requires. Most of his writing was 
done at high pressure or in extraordinary circum- 
stances. Father Zahm, the well-known scientist 
and man of letters in the Catholic Church — who 
accompanied Roosevelt on a large part of his South 
American explorations, and who originally pro- 
posed that trip — thus describes his two methods 
of work, in an article published in the Outlook not 
long after Roosevelt's death: 

The articles intended for one of the magazines of which he 
was a contributor were dictated to his secretary, and dictated 
for the most part immediately after the occurrence of the 
events described, while all of the facts were still fresh in his 
memory. Descriptions of scenery were rarely delayed more 
than one day, usually not more than a few hours. As soon 
as he returned from a visit to a museum, a cattle ranch, or a 
public gathering of any kind he called his secretary, and we 
soon heard the clicking of the keys of the typewriter. And 
it mattered not where he happened to be at the time — on a 
railway train, or on a steamer, or in a hotel — it was all the 
same. The work had to be done, and it was accomplished 
at the earliest possible moment. . . . 

The articles which appeared in another magazine describ- 



172 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT I 

ing his hunting experiences in Matto Grosso, unHke those 
recounting incidents of his triumphal march through other 
parts of South America, were written by his own hand, and 
often with the expenditure of great labour. Most people 
have come to believe that because Roosevelt wrote so much— 
and that often under the most unfavourable conditions — he 
must therefore have dashed off his articles for the press wit! 
little or no effort. Nothing is further from the truth. Nc 
one was more painstaking or conscientious than Roosevelij 
was in his literary work. I had frequent evidence of this 
especially in the upper Paraguay. Here it often happenec 
that he received different and contradictory reports regarding 
the habits of certain animals, but he would not put in writing 
his own opinions about the disputed questions until he ha( 
thoroughly investigated the subject and had satisfied himsel 
that he had arrived at the truth. . . . 

Sometimes his observations were penned after he had re 
turned from a long and tiresome hunt in the jungle. An; 
other man would have thrown himself into his hammock an( 
taken a rest. But not so our Nimrod. He would refresl 
himself by a plunge into a stream, if there was one near by 
or by a copious ablution in his portable bath, and then h 
would forthwith seat himself at a folding writing table, whic 
he always carried with him, and set down the experiences c 
the day w^hile they were still vividly before his mind. H 
would thus continue to write for an hour or two, or eve 
several hours, according to the time at his disposal. . . . 

He wrote with indelible pencil, and, by means of carbo 
paper, three copies were made of each article. This was as 
precaution against loss of the manuscript in the mails. F 
did not aim at stylistic effects, and never made any attem] 
at meretricious adornment of his thoughts. Like Cardin . 
Newman, his chief effort was to be clear and to express hii 
self in such wise that no one could mistake the meaning Ij 
desired to convey. It is for this reason that the style of li 
hunting articles is so graphic and pellucid, and that he w 



A MAN OF LETTERS 173 

le to make his readers see the marvels of tropical scenery 
he saw them himself. 

Robert Bridges, the editor of Scrihners Magazine 
in which Roosevelt's records of his African jour- 
\y were first published — also describes his method 
work as a writer: 

When he promised a manuscript for a certain date, that 
omise was kept absolutely, no matter what intervened. 
When he returned from the Spanish-American War and 
ided at Montauk, he sent word to the magazine that he 
mted to talk about his proposed story of "The Rough 
ders." Just before he started on that expedition he had 
A in a brief interview: "If I come back, you shall have the 
St chance at anything I write." 

It was, therefore, on the first afternoon after he returned 
his home at Oyster Bay that, on the lawn at Sagamore 
11, we talked over the book which developed into "The 
)ugh Riders." It was all perfectly clear in the Coloners 
nd. He knew the grand divisions of his story, although 
had not written a line. There were to be six articles, and 
2 date was set for the delivery of the first one so that the 
ial could begin in the magazine promptly. 
Very soon he was nominated for Governor of New York, 
jaid to him one day: "I suppose this will interfere with 
ur dates for The Rough Riders'?" 

"Not at all," he replied; "you shall have the various chap- 
's at the time promised." 

As everybody knows, he made a vigorous campaign for 
)vernor of New York, and was elected, and inaugurated in 
s following January. Notwithstanding this arduous and 
citing time, he fulfilled every promise and the book was 
Hvered on time. 
It was the same way with his "Oliver Cromwell," which 



174 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

was written while he was Governor of New York. He was 
a busy man, but his Hterary work was just as complete as 
though he had devoted his whole time to it. 

When he was President he sent for me, and, taking me into 
his hbrary, opened a drawer in his desk, lifted out a complete 
manuscript, put it on the desk, and said in effect: 

"It isn't customary for Presidents to publish a book during 
office, but I am going to publish this one." 

We then went over together the complete manuscript of 
"Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter." Some of 
these papers had been written before. Other chapters were 
the product of his hunting trips in Colorado and Louisiana 
while President. The book was ready for the printer, title- 
page and all. . . . 

To him the making of a book was a delight. He knew all 
the machinery of it, and he read his proofs with the accuracy 
and industry of an expert. 

But the literary work that he best enjoyed was writing his 
** African Game Trails." The whole book, even the preface, 
was written by his own hand, word for word, in triplicate, 
in the very heart of Africa. One of the men who was with 
him said that no matter how arduous the day in the hunting- 
field, night after night he would see the Colonel seated on a 
camp-stool, with a feeble light on the table, writing the nar- 
rative of his adventures. Chapter by chapter this narrative 
was sent by runners from the heart of Africa. Two copies 
were despatched at different times. When he got to the 
headwaters of the Nile one of the chapters was sent from 
Nairobi and the duplicate was sent down the Nile to Cairo. 
These blue canvas envelopes often arrived much battered and 
stained, but never did a single chapter miss. 



Brander Matthews, one of the very best of 
American contemporary critics of literature, in 



A MAN OF LETTERS 175 

an article in Munsey's Magazine on ** Theodore 
Roosevelt as a Man of Letters/' has said that: 

Roosevelt's style is firm and succulent; and Its excellence 
is due to his having learned the lesson of the masters of Eng- 
Hsh. He wrote well because he had read widely and deeply, 
because he had absorbed good literature for the sheer delight 
he took in it. Consciously or unconsciously he enriched his 
vocabulary, accumulating a store of strong words which he 
made flexible, bending them to do his bidding. But he was 
never bookish in his diction; he never went in quest of recon- 
dite vocables, because his taste was refined, and because he 
was ever seeking to be "understanded of the people." 

Of Roosevelt's autobiography, Brander Mat- 
thews adds that, while it has a lasting character 
as a human document, it is open to the criticism 
that it sounds like "an improvisation." It was an 
improvisation — at least in part. It came about in 
this way. After the turmoil of the Progressive 
campaign — in which the partisan passions of the 
country were deeply stirred and which resulted in 
Roosevelt's defeat — it seemed to us desirable, both 
for him and for the Outlook, that if possible his pen 
should take a vacation, for a time at least, from 
controversial political topics. We cast about to see 
what suggestion we could make to him that might 
turn his attention to other subjects and at the same 
time give him the opportunity to furnish our 
readers with that which they had come to look 



176 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

for from him; that is to say, contributions on pohti- 
cal, social, and industrial questions. It was my 
brother, I think, who suggested that if we could 
get him to write some of his reminiscences both 
objects would be accomplished. I went to him, 
therefore, and asked him if he would not give us 
some chapters of autobiographical reminiscences. 
He demurred at first very decidedly. ''I do not 
want to write about myself,'' he said. '* More- 
over, I am sure Mrs. Roosevelt would not like it." 
But I urged him to let me come down to Oyster 
Bay and interview him with a stenographer. 
''When the result is put in shape," I said, ''you 
can look it over and if you and Mrs. Roosevelt 
do not like it we can 'kill' it — to use the technical 
phrase of a newspaper office — and no harm is done. 
If, however, the result is satisfactory we can try 
another interview and continue them as long as 
you have the patience and inclination to do so." 
This plan struck him as feasible, and I met him 
at Sagamore Hill by appointment. The stenog- 
rapher was Frank Harper a young Englishman 
whom we had engaged to be Mr. Roosevelt's pri- 
vate secretary and who had travelled with us in 
that capacity during the European trip. I warned 
Harper to efface himself as much as possible so that 
Roosevelt would be as little conscious as we could 



A MAN OF LETTERS 177 

make him that his words were being taken down; 
and I also instructed him to make a record of 
everything — questions, answers, interpolations, 
comments, etc. — without any regard to whether 
his notes made a coherent whole or not. Roosevelt 
sat down with me in his study. 

**Now, Mr. Roosevelt/' I said, *'I am not going 
to ask you to dictate anything to Harper to-day. 
I am simply going to ask you some questions, get 
you to tell me some of the stories you have told 
me from time to time about your early life, and 
Harper will take the notes which I will give you 
later as memoranda which you can use later in writ- 
ing your recollections. You have told me you 
were a sickly boy and yet from the time I first knew 
you you have been an extraordinarily vigorous and 
athletic man. What kind of a boyhood and educa- 
tion did you have that could have produced such a 
striking result out of such an inauspicious begin- 
ning?" (I have said elsewhere, I think, that 
Roosevelt was one of the most delightful table talk- 
ers and raconteurs that I ever listened to.) 

My question interested him, and he began to tell 
something about his boyhood, his father, his 
mother, his bringing up in the Twentieth Street 
home, his narrative, fresh and extemporaneous, 
being full of humour and anecdote. Suddenly, 



178 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

catching sight of Harper, he straightened up and 
began to dictate in a more formal and literary 
vein. I did not interrupt, but waited until he 
said something, in the course of what had now 
become a somewhat stilted essay, that gave me a 
chance to ask him a question or two, reminding 
him, perhaps, of some anecdote that he had told 
me previously. Thus diverting him from what had 
quite apparently become a self-conscious and awk- 
ward feeling that he was writing a serious paper 
about himself, I started him off again, forgetful of 
the stenographer, on a current of reminiscential talk. ' 
In this way the afternoon was spent. When 
Harper's voluminous notes were written I took 
them to my own home and worked a day or two 
upon them, striking out the questions and ir- 
relevant remarks. By cutting up the typewritten 
pages and pasting them together again I adjusted 
the sequence and chronology of the story (for we 
had skipped in our conversation from boyhood 
to Harvard and from Harvard back to boyhood 
again as my questions had suggested ideas and 
recollections to Roosevelt). This was done, of 
course, without adding a single word to anything 
he had said or changing a single sentence. I had 
a fair copy made of this re-arrangement, which 
formed a consecutive narrative and composed the 



A MAN OF LETTERS 179 

first chapter of his autobiography, and submitted 
it to him. He was satisfied with the result and 
needed no further intervention on my part. With 
his usual quickness of perception he caught the 
idea which I was very desirous of getting before 
him, and completed the autobiography himself 
largely on the lines laid down in the first chapter. 
He occasionally fell into the argumentative and 
essay style later on in the volume and I think some- 
what overloaded it with appendices and documen- 
tary evidence. It has always seemed to me, 
however, that in those chapters where he adhered 
to what Brander Matthews called the method of 
"improvisation" he recorded recollections of a 
peculiar charm, both from a personal and a literary 
point of view. 

It is hard to say whether that portion of his 
literary work which was dictated or that which 
was written with his own hand was done with the 
greater care. The danger of dictation always is 
that one is apt to be verbose, but all his dictated 
work he always went over very carefully — after 
it was typed — correcting, deleting, and interlining 
with his pen. This was true even of his letters. 
To the latter he often added postscripts in his 
own hand which not infrequently proved to be 
the flavouring kernel of the entire letter. 



I So IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

As an illustration of the variety of Roosevelt's 
work and of the appeal which he made to his fellows, 
it may be recorded that Brander Matthews in- 
timates that Roosevelt ought to have chosen the 
writing of history as his profession for "his ulti- 
mate reputation as a man of letters will most 
securely rest upon his stern labours as a historian"; 
while Father Zahm thinks that a great scientist 
was lost when he entered upon a political career. 
Father Zahm says: 

Those who have read any of the Colonel's books bearing 
on natural history — especially his recent works: ''Life His- 
tories of African Game Animals" and "Through the Brazihan 
Wilderness" — know what a keen and trained observer he was, 
and how not even the most trifling peculiarities of form and 
colour escaped his quick and practised eye. But the general 
reader is not aware that Colonel Roosevelt's first love was 
natural history and not politics, and that it was only an un- 
toward combination of circumstances that prevented him from 
embracing the career of a naturalist. 

I am not sure but that Father Zahm has the 
weight of evidence for his claim. It does not seem 
to me that Roosevelt's historical essays, such as 
those which form the basis of his addresses at the 
University of Berlin and Oxford, are comparable 
in style or charm, or even in originality, with some 
of his more human and spontaneous writing. I 
do not know where, for example, one can find a 



A MAN OF LETTERS 



I8l 



more simple and yet a more vivid picture of sunset 
on the desert than is found in the account he wrote, 
in three articles, of a western trip which he took 
in 191 3. His articles were written for the Outlook 
and, so far as I know, have not been republished. 
The sunset passage is as follows : 

During the afternoon we shogged steadily across the plain. 
At one place, far off to one side, we saw a band of buffalo, 
and between them and us a herd of wild donkeys. Otherwise 
the only living things were snakes and lizards. On the other 
side of the plain, two or three miles from a high wall of ver- 
milion chffs, we stopped for the night at a little stone rest- 
house, built as a station by a cow outfit. Here there were big 
corrals, and a pool of water piped down by the cowmen from 
a spring many miles distant. On the sand grew the usual 
desert plants, and on some of the ridges a sparse growth of 
grass, sufficient for the night feed of the hardy horses. The 
little stone house and the corrals stood out, bare and desolate, 
on the empty plain. 

Soon after we reached there a sand-storm rose and blew so 
violently that we took refuge Inside the house. Then the 
wind died down; and as the sun sank toward the horizon we 
sauntered off through the hot, still evening. There were 
many sidewinder rattlesnakes. We killed several of the gray, 
flat-headed, venomous things; as we slept on the ground, we 
were glad to kill as many as possible. Except this baleful 
life there was little save the sand and the harsh, scanty vege- 
tation. 

Across the lonely wastes the sun went down. The sharply 
channelled cliffs turned crimson In the dying hght; all the 
heavens flamed ruby red, and faded to a hundred dim hues 
of opal, beryl, and amber, pale turquoise, and delicate emer- 
ald; and then night fell and darkness shrouded the desert. 



1 82 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

His *' Winning of The West," as Brander Mat- 
thews says, is probably **an abiding contribution 
to American historical literature." On the political 
side, however, I think his ** Naval War of 1812" 
and his "Life of Gouverneur Morris" ought not 
to be — and will not be — forgotten. He himself 
had, for some reason, a peculiar interest in a 
volume: "Hero Tales from American History" 
which he wrote in collaboration with Henry Cabot 
Lodge. In 1916 I was preparing a list, for a cor- 
respondent, of books on American history which 
could be read by a young layman with the kind of 
interest which such readers take in narrative rather 
than in technical studies. I wrote to Roosevelt 
telling him what I was doing and saying that I 
had put in Rhodes's "Oxford Lectures on the Civil 
War" (a great favourite of mine) and his own 
"Naval War of 1812." In reply he said: 

I would certainly put in Rhodes' Oxford Lectures on the 
Civil War. If you want anything from me, don't take the 
*'War of 1 81 2," but take "Hero Tales from American His- 
tory," which Lodge and I wrote together. 

The chapter in the "Hero Tales" on the Death 
of Stonewall Jackson affords a good example of 
Roosevelt's strong admiration for the type of man 
who is an upright and righteous and yet hard- 
fighting soldier. 



A MAN OF LETTERS 183 

He was a voracious and omnivorous reader. 
It is impossible to estimate the amount of Roose- 
velt's reading but it must have been phenomenally 
large for he read all sorts of books, modern and 
ancient, at all sorts of times and with almost un- 
believable rapidity. In the life of Robert Houdin, 
the famous French conjuror and magician of the 
early nineteenth century it is related that he had the 
gift, developed and augmented by constant practice, 
of being able to pass through an elaborately fur- 
nished room and then to describe in minute detail 
the various articles of furniture and ornament 
which it contained. His eye received and his mind 
grasped in a moment or two impressions which it 
would take the ordinary man half an hour to 
tabulate. 

•Roosevelt had this gift in reading. The child 
laboriously reads syllable by syllable or word by 
word; the practised adult reads line by line; Roose- 
velt read almost page by page and yet remembered 
what he read. Mr. Neil, United States Commis- 
sioner of Labour, during Roosevelt's administra- 
tion once described to me how he took a report to 
the President on which he had spent a laborious 
month of preparation. It consisted of a number 
of typewritten pages. Roosevelt took the report, 
fixed his eyes upon it — or rather his eye, for one 



i84 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

had been so damaged in boxing that for many 
years he saw only dimly with it — turned over the 
sheets about as steadily and rapidly as an old- 
fashioned Grandfather's clock ticks, finished the 
document and handed it back to the Commissioner 
with comments and suggestions so fresh and perti- 
nent that it was quite clear that he had not only 
read the words of the report but had clearly under- 
stood its scope and significance. *'It had taken 
him less than thirty minutes," said Mr. Neil, ''to 
understand, and to improve by adding new facts 
and arguments, the treatment of a subject to which 
I had devoted hours of study." 

It was not only because he read with extraor- 
dinary speed but because he used spare minutes 
for reading that his range was so wide. 

He read while waiting for trains and for people 
to keep appointments and when driving in his auto- 
mobile to the city. I have seen him pick up a 
book surrounded by a roomful of talking and laugh- 
ing friends and in a moment become so absorbed 
in it that he had no more knowledge of what was 
going on about him than if he had been in a cloister 
cell. During the railway journey from Khartum 
to Cairo on the tour of 1910, described more fully 
in a later chapter, a special dinner was to be served 
one evening in the private saloon dining car placed 



A MAN OF LETTERS 185 

at Roosevelt's disposal by the Governor-General 
of the Sudan. This dinner was to be attended by 
some important officials and other guests, who had 
taken the train at one of the stations we- passed 
through and were to leave it at another specified 
stopping-place. It was therefore essential that the 
company should assemble at the table promptly, 
but when dinner was announced Mr. Roosevelt was 
nowhere to be found. I searched the train for 
him and finally discovered him in one of the white 
enamelled lavatories with its door half open where, 
standing under an electric light, he was busily 
engaged in reading, while he braced himself in the 
c.ngle of the two walls against the swaying motion 
of the train, oblivious to time and surroundings. 
The book in which he was absorbed was Lecky's 
"History of Rationalism in Europe." He had 
chosen this peculiar reading room both because 
the white enamel reflected a brilliant light and he 
was pretty sure of uninterrupted quiet. This was 
typical of the way in which he seized spare mo- 
ments for the information or entertainment that 
books afford. 

The fact, however, that it was Lecky, instead of 
Mark Twain or O. Henry, was purely fortuitous, 
for he was no pedant. He liked novels and stories 
of adventure and books of hurrour, but he wanted 



1 86 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

them to be written by men of intelligence and skil- 
ful workmanship. Books of travel and explora- 
tion especially appealed to him although he was not 
interested, as he once told me, in mere biography. 
At the Mohammedan University in Cairo which 
we visited, an ancient and medieval seat of learn- 
ing, established in a spacious building, where the 
chief subject of study appeared to be the Koran 
taught to classes of boys and men squatting upon 
their haunches on the floor in Oriental fashion, 
Roosevelt was especially interested in the library. 
The language of the University was Arabic, but 
we had with us a Syrian interpreter who, having 
been educated at the American College at Beirut, 
spoke English fluently. Roosevelt was surrounded 
by an interested group of Mohammedan teachers 
and officials, both young and old. He had not 
been long in this library of ancient literature when 
he asked through the interpreter if they had in 
their collection the travels of Ibn Batuta. When 
that name was mentioned there was a great light- 
ing up of faces and a great scurrying of willing 
messengers, who presently came back with a vol- 
ume printed in Arabic which Roosevelt took in his 
hands with almost devout interest. *'Read that," 
said he to the interpreter, pointing to the first page, 
which the interpreter proceeded to do, with a dozen 



A MAN OF LETTERS 187 

heads bent over the hieroglyphics. *'Yes/' said 
Roosevelt, as the reading finished, ''that's it. Now 
doesn't he say so-and-so further on.?" Where- 
upon the interpreter turned over the pages and, 
sure enough, Ibn did say so-and-so at the beginning 
of the next chapter, to the delighted surprise of the 
Arab group surrounding us who were literally over- 
joyed to find that the famous visitor from the West 
knew one of their great authors. When we went 
out Roosevelt explained to me that Ibn Batuta 
was the Arabian Marco Polo who made a voyage 
around Africa in the fourteenth century and left 
an account of his great adventure in the volume 
we had just been looking at. Roosevelt had read 
it many years before in a French translation and 
had remembered it with such accuracy that he 
could point out a specific passage not, of course, in 
the Arabic text, but from the context as translated 
by the interpreter. 

He had a human interest in universities although 
he was not in the slightest degree academic, in 
spite of the fact that he had received as many 
academic honours as any man of his time, including 
the greatest one that can be conferred upon a 
modern — that of being created a D. C. L. by 
Oxford. But when universities did things that 
seemed to him contrary to social morals he had little 



1 88 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

use for them. He once wrote me a letter of outraged 
protest when Columbia and Yale had paid marked 
distinction to two American journalists who, he 
thought, had exercised a sinister influence upon 
American life. But after he had let off his steam 
of vigorous criticism, he cheered himself, as he 
often did, by a quizzical comment: ** Universities 
are middling queer creatures, aren't they!" was 
his conclusion of the matter. 

Unless the literature was the fiction of adventure 
or of humour Roosevelt chiefly got either social 
or industrial suggestions and inspirations out of his 
reading. This aspect of his work as a man of 
letters is shown in a communication I received from 
him while he was in Africa in 1909- 19 lo. It was 
one of the letters written in his own hand with 
indelible pencil. 

Naivasha, October 21st. 
If President Eliot's "List of Best Books" is complete, will 
you send it to me.? If I am able I'd like to write something 
on it; I don't believe in a list of "100" or "25" "best" books, 
because there are many thousands which may be "best" ac- 
cording to the country, the time, the condition, the reader; 
but I do believe in "a" 25 to 100 or any other number of 
"good" books, each such list being merely complementary 
to and not a substitute for many other similar lists. The 
books in my pigskin library on this hunt are good; they are 
no better than any one of the totally different sets I took on 
each of my last three hunting trips, except that I have a 
longer list for the longer trip. 



A MAN OF LETTERS 189 

I liked Kennan's article on what I said about Tolstoi — I 
like everything that he writes! — and am in fundamental 
agreement with what he says, especially in his unsparing 
condemnation of the cruel, ruthless, bureaucratic tyranny 
under which Russia lies in festering misery. But there are 
one or two points on which I should like to give reasons for 
what I said; if you care to you can send this to him. 

First as to Tolstoi's immorality. Have you ever read his 
" Kreutzer Sonata" (if that's the way to spell it) .? I read it, 
or rather as much of it as was necessary to a pathological 
diagnosis. The man who wrote that was a sexual and a 
moral pervert. It is as unhealthy a book, as vicious in its 
teaching to the young, as Elinor Glyn's "Three Weeks" or 
any other piece of pornographic literature — for I need hardly 
say that the worst pornographic literature is that which, with 
conscious or only half-conscious hypocrisy, calls itself by 
some other name; some of the very vilest of such books are 
often written under the pretense of being in the interests of 
social or hygienic reform. In your father's delightful Vesper 
Sermons was one the other day on the Song of Solomon, 
which dealt with the love of married lovers in a spirit which 
I believe to be as true as it is lofty. I think that the love of 
the really happy husband and wife — not purged of passion, 
but with passion heatened to a white heat of intensity and 
purity and tenderness and consideration, and with many 
another feeling added thereto — is the loftiest and most ennob- 
ling influence that comes intothe life of anymanorwoman,even 
loftier and more ennobling than wise and tender love for chil- 
dren. The cheapest, most degrading, and most repulsive cy- 
nicism is that which laughs at, or describes as degraded, this 
relation. Now the '' Kreutzer Sonata " has, as its theme, that 
this relation is bestial and repellent, and its whole purpose is to 
paint the love of husband and wife as loving exactly the same 
as the squalid and loathsome intimacy between a rake and a 
prostitute. When that book appeared it seemed to me to re- 
peal, as by a flash, the strange hidden perversion of morals 



J90 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

which has made Tolstoi in his professedly moral writings, as 
distinguished from his really far more moral novels, inveigh 
against all the relations of man and woman as if the highest 
and most ennobling and the lowest and most depraved stood 
on the same plane. No greater wrong can be done humanity 
than to inculcate such doctrine; at its best it makes the wife 
feel that she ought to regard herself as on a par with a pros- 
titute; at its worst it enables the "man swine" to say that, 
after all, he is not a bit worse than his most upright neighbour. 
How can there be more revolting and monstrous teaching? 

Now about hypocrisy. If there is one thing upon which 
we should insist in writer and talker, but above all in pro- 
fessed prophet and reformer, it is that he shall make his words 
measurably good (it is not in human nature completely to 
realize an ideal) by his deeds. I believe that the root-vice 
in our political life is the demand by part of the public that a 
candidate shall make impossible promises, and the grin of 
cynical amusement and contempt with which another portion 
of the public regards his breaking even the promises he could 
keep; arid one attitude is as bad as the other. As it is with 
politicians, so it is with philosophers. I think Rousseau did 
much good by some of the principles he advocated; and more 
harm because he taught people by his actions to regard the 
enunciation of lofty aspirations as a substitute for lofty deeds 
and indeed as an atonement for a life that gave the lie to the 
aspirations. Mr. Kennan quotes Tolstoi's words as proofs 
of repentance. Repentance must be shown by deeds, not 
words. One lapse is quite pardonable; but persistence in 
doing one thing while preaching another is not pardonable. 
It seems to me that Tolstoi is one of those men, by no means 
uncommon, of perverted moral type who at bottom consider 
the luxury of frantic repentance — and the luxury of profess- 
ing adherence to an impossible and undesirable ideal — as full 
atonement for, and as really permitting, persistence in a line 
of conduct which gives the lie to their professions. Tolstoi 
preaching against those relations of man and woman, without 



A MAN OF LETTERS 191 

which there would either be no humanity, or a humanity 
perpetuated by those of its members who stand closest to 
beasts, is a contemptible figure in my eyes; but he is made 
more contemptible when we know that all the time he is hav- 
ing sons and daughters. 

I saw X (once a man of high and fine promise) ruined, 

and rendered a worse than worthless citizen, by falling under 

Tolstoi's baleful influence; and Y has, because of the same 

influence, sunk from being a most useful citizen to the posi- 
tion of a well-meaning agitator who latterly has done rather 
more harm than good, by sheer folly, committed in the n?me 
of philanthropy. 

About the Douma. I agree absolutely with Kennan as 
to the cause of the Douma's inefl^ciency. But I think harm 
comes to the cause of morality and reform in Russia it, be- 
cause of our sympathy with its advocates, and our abhor- 
rence of what it seeks to overthrow, we are betrayed into 
acquiescence in either wickedness or folly. Bryan, for in- 
stance, favours a section of the Douma which, if its doctrines 
were put into practice, would within a year make men hail 
any tyranny or despotism as a relief from a system in which 
folly raised to the A^th power would inevitably produce a 
grade of wickedness proportionately high. Think of the 
Douma passing a proposed law to do away with capital pun- 
ishment and at the same time refusing to pass a resolution 
condemning the murder of officials! We all warmly sym- 
pathize with the overthrow of the Ancien Regirne in France; 
but when the so-called friends of liberty brought about the 
Red Terror they did France a wrong so hideous that the 
nation has not yet wrought out its atonement. There! 
You'll never want to hear from me again. 

Does not this comment on Russia, written nearly 
ten years ago, take on the aspect of prophecy in the 
lieht of the present results of Russian Bolshevism? 



192 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

I find that naturally I come back to the political 
and social aspect of Roosevelt's work as a man of 
letters. In October, 191 2, he published a short 
paper in the Outlook entitled '*How I Became a 
Progressive/' I print it here because it has not 
been dug out of the pages of that periodical by 
anybody else so far as I know and it deserves a 
permanent form both as an autobiographical docu- 
ment and as a specimen of Roosevelt's simple, 
direct, and popular style. 



I suppose I had a natural tendency to become a Progres- 
sive, anyhow. That is, I was naturally a democrat, in be- 
lieving in fair play for everybody. But I grew toward my 
present position, not so much as the result of study in the 
library or the reading of books — although I have been very 
much helped by such study and by such reading — as by 
actually living and working with men under many different 
conditions and seeing their needs from many different points 
of view. 

The first set of our people with whom I associated so in- 
timately as to get on thoroughly sympathetic terms with 
them were cow-punchers, then on the ranges in the West. 
I was so impressed with them that in doing them justice I 
did injustice to equally good citizens elsewhere whom I did 
not know; and it was a number of years before I grew to 
understand — first by association with railway men, then with 
farmers, then with mechanics, and so on — that the things 
that I specially liked about my cow-puncher friends were, 
after all, to be found fundamentally in railway men, in 
farmers, in blacksmiths, carpenters — in fact, generally among 
my fellow American citizens. 



A MAN OF LETTERS 193 

Before I began to go with the cow-punchers, I had already, 
as the result of experience in the Legislature at Albany, 
begun rather timidly to strive for social and industrial justice. 
But at that time my attitude was that of giving justice from 
above. It was the experience on the range that first taught 
me to try to get justice for all of us by working on the same 
level with the rest of my fellow citizens. 

It was the conviction that there was much social and in- 
dustrial injustice and the effort to secure social and industrial 
justice that first led me to taking so keen an interest in popu- 
lar rule. 

For years I accepted the theory, as most of the rest of us 
then accepted it, that we already had popular government; 
that this was a government by the people. I believed the 
power of the boss was due only to the indifference and short- 
sightedness of the average decent citizen. Gradually it 
came over me that while this was half the truth, it was only 
half the truth, and that while the boss owed part of his powei' 
to the fact that the average man did not do his duty, yet that 
there was the further fact to be considered, that for the 
average man it had already been made very difficult instead 
of very easy for him to do his duty. I grew to feel a keen 
interest in the machinery for getting adequate and genuine 
popular rule, chiefly because I found that we could not get 
social and industrial justice without popular rule, and that 
it was immensely easier to get such popular rule by the means 
of machinery of the type of direct nominations at primaries, 
the short ballot, the initiative, referendum, and the like. 

I usually found that my interest in any given side of a 
question of justice was aroused by some concrete case. It 
was the examination I made into the miseries attendant 
upon the manufacture of cigars in tenement-houses that first 
opened my eyes to the need of legislation on such subjects. 
My friends come from many walks of life. The need for a 
workmen's compensation act was driven home to me by my 
knowing a brakeman who had lost his legs in an accident. 



194 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

and whose family was thereby at once reduced from self- 
respecting comfort to conditions that at one time became 
very dreadful. Of course, after coming across various con- 
crete instances of this kind, I would begin to read up on the 
subject, and then I would get in touch with social workers 
and others who were experts and could acquaint me with 
what was vital in the matter. Looking back, it seems to me 
that I made my greatest strides forward while I was Police 
Commissioner, and this largely through my intimacy with 
Jacob Riis, for he opened all kinds of windows into the matter 
for me. 

The Conservation movement I approached from slightly 
different lines. I have always been fond of history and of 
science, and what has occurred to Spain, to Palestine, to 
China, and to North Africa from the destruction of natural 
resources is familiar to me. I have always been deeply im- 
pressed with Liebig's statement that it was the decrease of soil 
fertility, and not either peace or war, which was fundamental 
in bringing about the decadence of nations. While unques- 
tionably nations have been destroyed by other causes, I have 
become convinced that it was the destruction of the soil itself 
which was perhaps the most fatal of all causes. But when, 
at the beginning of my term of service as President, under the 
influence of Mr. Pinchot and Mr. Newell, I took up the cause 
of Conservation, I was already fairly well awake to the need 
of social and industrial justice; and from the outset we had in 
view, not only the preservation of natural resources, but the 
prevention of monopoly in natural resources, so that they 
should inhere in the people as a whole. There were plenty 
of newspapers — the New York Times, Sun, and Evening 
Post, for instance — which cordially supported our policy of 
Conservation as long as we did not try to combine it with a 
movement against monopolization of resources, and which 
promptly abandoned us when it became evident that we 
wished to conserve the resources not for a part of the people 
but for all of the people. 



A MAN OF LETTERS 195 

The country-life movement was simply another side of this 
movement for a better and juster life. From Mary E. Wil- 
kins to Sarah Orne Jewett, in story after story which I would 
read for mere enjoyment, I would come upon things that not 
merely pleased me but gave me instruction — (I have always 
thought that a good novel or a good story could teach quite 
as much as a more solemnly pretentious work, if it was written 
in the right way and read in the right way) — and then 
my experience on farms, my knowledge of farmers, the way I 
followed what happened to the sons and daughters of the 
farmers I knew, all joined to make me feel the need of arous- 
ing the public interest and the public conscience as regards 
the conditions of life in the country. 

Here again I have been fortunate enough to live with my 
own people, and not to live as an outsider, but as a man do- 
ing his share of the work. I know what the work and what 
the loneliness of a farmer's life too often are. I do not want tc 
help the farmer or to help his wife in ways that will soften 
either, but I do want to join with both, and try to help them 
and help myself and help all of us, not by doing away with 
the need of work, but by trying to create a situation in which 
work will be more fruitful, and in which the work shall produce 
and go hand in hand with opportunities for self-development. 

Very early I learned through my reading of history, and I 
found through my association with reformers, that one of the 
prime difficulties was to get the man who wished reform 
within a nation also to pay heed to the needs of the nation 
from the international standpoint. Every little city or re- 
public of antiquity was continually torn between factions 
which wished to do justice at home but were weak abroad, 
and other factions which secured justice abroad by the loss of 
personal liberty at home. So here at home I too often found 
that men who were ardent for social and industrial reform 
would be ignorant of the needs of this Nation as a nation, 
would be ignorant of what the Navy meant to the Nation, 
of what it meant to the Nation to have and to fortify and 



196 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

protect the Panama Canal, of what it meant to the Nation tc 
get from the other nations of mankind the respect which 
comes only to the just, and which is denied to the weaker 
nation far more quickly than it is denied to the stronger. 

It ought not to be necessary to insist upon a point like this, 
with China before our very eyes offering the most woeful 
example of the ruin that comes to a nation which cannot de- 
fend itself against aggression — and China, by the way, offers 
the further proof that centuries of complete absence of mili- 
tarism may yet result in the development of all the v/orst 
vices and all the deepest misery that grow up in nations that 
suffer from over-much militarism. Here again I learn from 
books, I learn from study, and I learn most by dealing with 
men. 

I feel that the Progressive party owes no small part of its 
strength to the fact that it not only stands for the most far- 
reaching measures of social and industrial reform, but in sane 
and temperate fashion stands also for the right and duty of 
this Nation to take a position of self-respecting strength 
among the nations of the world, to take such a position as will 
do injustice to no foreign power, strong or weak, and yet will 
show that it has both the spirit and the strength to repel in- 
justice from abroad. 

It would be a pity to leave the impression, as 
perhaps would be the case if Roosevelt's Progres- 
sive creed were made the conclusion of this chapter, 
that his interests were exclusively — or even pri- 
marily — social and political. The fact is that he 
was so varied and had so many facets to his per- 
sonality that I am confused myself to determine 
what he was most interested in. He had a deep 
love for pure beauty in literature. Keats's "Ode 



A MAN OF LETTERS 197 

on a Grecian Urn" was, for example, one of his 
favourite poems. Its appeal to him was, I think, 
not merely because of its music and the artistry of 
its form, but because it takes its reader completely 
out of material life and puts him into the quieting 
and problemless universe of pure imagination. 

The day before he left London, on his return 
from his African and European tour in 1910, Roose- 
velt disappeared. It was known that he had gone off 
with Sir Edward (now Viscount) Grey, but where 
he went nobody knew — and the newspapers could 
not find out. This, in his own language, was what 
happened: 

Like most Americans interested in birds and books, I know 
a good deal about English birds as they appear in books. I 
know the lark of Shakespeare and Shelley and the Ettrick 
Shepherd; I know the nightingale of Milton and Keats; I 
know Wordsworth's cuckoo; I know mavis and merle singing 
in the merry green wood of the old ballads; I know^ Jenny 
Wren and Cock Robin of the nursery books. Therefore I 
have always much desired to hear the birds in real life; and 
the opportunity offered last June. As I could snatch but a 
few hours from a very exacting round of pleasure and duties, 
it was necessary for me to be with some companion who 
could identify both song and singer. In Sir Edward Grey, 
a keen lover of outdoor life in all its phases, and a delightful 
companion, who knows the songs and ways of English birds 
as very few do know them, I found the best possible guide. 

We left London on the morning of June 9, twenty-four 
hours before I sailed from Southampton. Getting off the 
train at Basingstoke, we drove to the pretty, smiling valley 



198 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

of the Itchen. Here we tramped for three or four hours, then 
again drove, this time to the edge of the New Forest, where 
we first took tea at an inn, and then tramped through the 
forest to an inn on its other side, at Brockenhurst. At the 
conclusion of our walk my companion made a list of the birds 
we had seen, putting an asterisk opposite those which we had 
heard sing. There were forty-one of the former and twenty- 
three of the latter, as follows: 

*Thrush, *Blackbird, *Lark, *Yellow Hammer, *Robin, 
*Wren, *Golden-Crested Wren, *Goldfinch, ^Chaffinch, 
*Greenfinch, Pied Wagtail, Sparrow, *Dunnock (Hedge 
Accentor), Missel Thrush, Starling, Rook, Jackdaw, *Black 
Cap, *Garden Warbler, *Willow Warbler, *Chiff ChafF, *Wood 
Warbler, *Tree Creeper, *Reed Bunting, *Sedge Warbler, 
Coot, Water Hen, Little Grebe (Dabchick), Tufted Duck, 
Wood Pigeon, Stock Dove, *Turtle Dove, Peewit, Tit (?Coal 
Tit), *Cuckoo, *Nightjar, *Swallow, Martin, Swift, Pheasant, 
Partridge. 

The foregoing account is taken from an article 
on English Song Birds which he wrote for the 
Outlook on his return. When he got back he went 
out at Sagamore Hill to compare what he saw of 
the home birds with "the notes and actions of the 
birds I had seen in England." He ends the article 
in this way: 

I sent the companion of my English walk John Burroughs's 
"Birds and Poets." John Burroughs's life-work is beginning 
to have its full effect in many different lines. When he first 
wrote there were few men of letters in our country who knew 
nature at first hand. Now there are many who delight in 
our birds, who know their songs, who keenly love all that 
belongs to out-of-door life. For instance, Madison Cawein 



A MAN OF LETTERS 199 

and Ernest McGafFey have for a number of years written of 
our woods and fields, of the birds and the flowers, as only 
those can write who join to love of Nature the gift of observa- 
tion and the gift of description. Mr. Cawein is a Kentuckian; 
and another Kentuckian, Miss Julia Stockton Dinsmore, 
in the little volume of poems which she has just published, 
includes many which describe with beauty and charm the 
sights and sounds so dear to all of us who know American 
country life. Miss Dinsmore knows Kentucky, and the Gulf 
Coast of Louisiana, and the great plains of North Dakota; 
and she knows also the regions that lie outside of what can be 
seen with material vision. For years intour family we have 
had some of her poems in the scrap-book cut from newspapers 
when we knew nothing about her except the initials signed 
to the verses. Only one who sees with the eyes of the spirit 
zs well as the eyes of the body could have written the '*Thre- 
nody," curiously attractive in its simplicity and pathos, with 
which the little book opens. It contains many poems that 
make a similar appeal. The writer knows bluebird and robin, 
red bird and field lark and whippoorwill, just as she knows 
Southern rivers and Western plains; she knows rushing winds 
and running waters and the sights and sounds of lonely 
places; and, moreover, she knows, and almost tells, those 
hidden things of the heart which never find complete utter- 
ance. 

I wonder whether birds and children and home 
did not have a deeper interest for Roosevelt than 
soldiering or pioneering or statesmanship? After 
all is said and done, should not the final estimate 
be that he was, not a literary man, not a political 
man, not a military man, but a homely man^ 



CHAPTER VII 

AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 

tXTHEN Roosevelt made his plans in the 
^ ^ autumn of 1908 and the early winter of 1909 
to explore the African jungle as a hunter-naturalist, 
to use his own phrase, I arranged, with his ap- 
proval, to accompany him as far as Mombasa, 
on the eastern shore of Africa, whence he was to 
enter the wilderness. He was to sail on Tuesday, 
March 23 rd, on the North German Lloyd steam- 
ship Hamburg, bound for Naples. I had arranged 
my passage and bought my tickets when he wrote 
me as follows from the White House on February 
first: 



After considerable thought I told the Associated Press 
people that I did not wish even you to go with me on my 
trip. I don't want any people able to say that I am respon- 
sible for any newspaper man or magazine writer accompany- 
ing me on my trip. I want to be able to say that I have 
done my best to keep every representative of the press 
from accompanying me or from advertising the trip in any 
way and that beyond the formal exchange of courtesies I 
have had no communication with any newspaper man while 
on the trip. 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 201 

Of course I cheerfully, but regretfully, cancelled 
my passage and stayed behind. 

When Roosevelt left New York he had arranged 
to make three formal public speeches during his 
return home through Europe in 1910 — the address 
at the Sorbonne (referred to in the preceding 
chapter), an address at the University of Berlin, 
and the Romanes Lecture at Oxford University. 
The three addresses, which were to be not political 
but academic in character, had been written before 
he left America. I was anxious to hear them be- 
cause I believed that the occasions of their delivery 
would prove to be university events of the first 
importance. So during the autumn of 1909 I 
wrote and asked him whether he had any objection 
to my joining him in France the following spring, 
in order to hear these three addresses. 

There lies before me, as I write, an autograph 
letter from Roosevelt — dated **0n Safari, De- 
cember 2, 1909" — which was chiefly devoted 
to the controversy about the record of the 
Rough Riders at San Juan Hill. It may be of 
interest to quote here what he said of this con- 
troversy: 

About B 's letter concerning the Rough Riders at San 

Juan Hill my own idea is that a public controversy on the sub- 
ject would be unwise. You can write B what I now say : 



202 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Mr. B , by his own letter, shows that I stated the facts 

exactly in the volume I wrote. [''The Rough Riders."] 
There is no misapprehension in the matter at all, except in 

minds like Mr. B 's. The San Juan Block House was 

simply one of the points of attack; the rest of the San Juan 
Ridge, and the hills near by, like Kettle Hill, form other 
points of attack. The cavalry charged at *'San Juan Hill" 
just as much as the infantry; to deny this is merely to quib- 
ble — and to quibble untruthfully at that; and they charged 
*'over the hill at San Juan." The titles of the pictures to 

which Mr. B objects are absolutely accurate. Let him 

for a moment think of the Battle of Gettysburg. This took 
its name from the village of Gettysburg, where there was 
much hard fighting. But there was also hard fighting at 
Gulp's Hill, at Round Top, and at the stone wall facing Pick- 
ett's charge. To say, as Mr. B does, that the Rough Riders 

and the regular cavalry "had no hand in the matter" of the 
San Juan charge is as foolish and untruthful as to say that 
Pickett's Virginians and all the men w^ho fought at Round Top 
and Gulp's Hill "had no hand in the fight at Gettysburg." 

The infantry brigades which went up the Blockhouse Hill 
at San Juan did admirably; they deserve no less, and no more, 
credit than the cavalry brigades who at the same time did 
their share in the charge, that is the battle, of San Juan (it 
was all a charge and then holding the ground we had taken). 
Only one of the five or six regiments in the two infantry 
brigades which charged at the Blockhouse Hill suffered as 
heavy a percentage of loss in the Santiago fighting as the 
Rough Riders did. The first position captured on the "San 
Juan Heights" — that is the hills, loosely so-called, which 
defended the town — was Kettle Hill, by the cavalry. To 
try to start a quarrel over the relative credit of the regiments 
who fought in this fight is foolish and wrong; "the famous 

charge up San Juan" as Mr. B calls it, was made by both 

cavalry and infantry, at different points, and Mr. B 's 

position is merely a disingenuous quibble. 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 203 

The special interest about this letter is that it 
was written in the jungle, under circumstances that 
make some of the handwriting very hard to de- 
cipher and, like the article on the Pigskin Library, 
referred to later, without access to any maps or 
books of reference. It is one of many evidences 
that Roosevelt's mind was stored with facts of all 
kinds — historical, geographical, and scientific — and 
that he could take these facts out, often with literal 
and accurate quotations, from their various mental 
pigeon-holes. 

In a postscript to this letter he added: "I hope 
you will meet me at Khartum on March fifteenth/' 
So on February 10, 1910, I took passage for 
Naples, whence I proceeded via Alexandria, Cairo, 
and the upper reaches of the Nile, to Khartum. 
I found that Mrs. Roosevelt and Ethel Roosevelt, 
now Mrs. Derby, were going on the same steamer; 
I was therefore, happily for myself, able to act as 
their escort. 

It was typical of Mr. Roosevelt's exactness in 
planning and carrying out his engagements that 
he should have arrived at Khartum on March 
14th, the day before that which, in the previous 
December, he had appointed as the date of our 
meeting. On reaching Khartum I learned that 
through the considerate thoughtfulness of either 



204 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Mr. or Mrs. Roosevelt — perhaps of both — I was 
to be their fellow guest at the Governor-Generars 
palace, a really beautiful and delightful establish- 
ment built in the custom of tropical countries 
round three sides of a patio or courtyard filled 
with flowers and shrubs. 

The Roosevelt party consisted of Mr. and Mrs. 
Roosevelt, and their daughter and son, Ethel and 
Kermit. I found that Mr. Roosevelt proposed 
to buy the tickets, check the trunks, write his 
own letters, and keep track of his own engage- 
ments. In a word, he expected to make the journey 
from Khartum through Europe like any American 
tourist. 

I was with him only three or four hours when I 
foresaw that fulfillment of this programme would 
be absolutely impossible. It was apparent that 
he was going to be treated like a royal ambassa- 
dor, and that it would be necessary for him to 
have some kind of secretarial assistance. I vol- 
unteered to help him and I think he was glad to 
get my help, for almost every one of his waking 
hours was fully occupied from the very moment 
of his arrival within the precincts of civilization. 
Indeed he said in accepting my offer, and employ- 
ing a characteristic exclamation associated with 
him in the mind of every contemporary American 



V^S:^ 












C^!^ 



r25»s»t»-.6'».^ 






/-^^ 



4^^. 












^ page from Roosevelt's Ms. of " T/i^ Pigskin Library 



ios 



2o6 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

newspaper writer and cartoonist, that he was "de- 
lighted!" 

One of the first of my self-imposed duties was to 
copy in my own hand the draft of his article on 
**The Pigskin Library" which was written in in- 
dehble pencil in the jungle, originally published 
in the Outlook, and afterward incorporated in an 
appendix of his book ''African Game Trails." 
The accompanying photographic reproduction of a 
page of this manuscript will indicate to the reader 
that the job was not altogether a simple one. I 
remember that I sat up until about two or three 
o'clock on the night of my arrival in Khartum 
making this transcript. 

Finally I found that I could not perform my 
voluntary task without assistance and I told Mr. 
Roosevelt that I proposed to cable to my office 
in New York for a stenographic secretary. He 
demurred at first on the ground that he did not 
wish to put the office to what he was afraid would 
be a large and unprofitable expense, but I per- 
suaded him to consent, telling him that I was think- 
ing more of my own comfort than I was of his. I 
cabled; and Mr. Harper jumped on the first steamer 
and joined us at Rome. Even Harper was unable 
to keep up with all the work, so at Berlin I was 
compelled to engage another stenographic assistant 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 207 

and, in London, two others. As a matter of fact 
in London Mr. Roosevelt's old friend of Spanish 
War days. Captain (now Sir Arthur) Lee, placed 
at our disposal the office in his hospitable house 
where he transacted much of his business as a 
Member of Parliament. This office, with desks, 
telephone, two stenographic secretaries (some of 
the time three), was busy all day long during 
Mr. Roosevelt's stay in London of ten days or 
so, transacting his correspondence, planning his 
engagements, and attending to other matters 
connected with his visit. There was, for example, 
the complicated work of exchanging visiting cards. 
This necessary but very uninteresting side of 
diplomatic usage reached its climax in Rome. 
There, I recall, I had to spend a day with Captain 
Long — formerly of the presidential yacht May- 
flower but at that time our Naval Attache at Rome 
and Vienna — going over a basket full of visiting 
:ards, culling out those that needed Mr. or Mrs. 
Roosevelt^s, or Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt's card 
eft in exchange, and the following day a clerk of 
Zlaptain Long's office spent most of his time in a 
:axi-cab, with a carefully mapped out itinerary 
n his hand, going about Rome leaving the right 
.ards at the right places. 
But to revert to Khartum. I soon found that. 



2o8 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

in writing letters or seeing people on Mr. Roose- 
velt's behalf, it was necessary to have some sort 
of official authority. At Cairo all sorts of distin- 
guished people were calling at the hotel at which 

Mr. Roosevelt was staying. If Prince X 

called, in Mr. Roosevelt's absence, and I went 
down to receive him, my name would mean nothing 
to him; but if I said that I was Mr. Roosevelt's 
secretary, while he undoubtedly would be disap- 
pointed he would at least have transacted his busi- 
ness with me as he would have with the secretary 
of an embassy or a legation. I suggested this to 
Mr. Roosevelt and he approved. Thereafter I sawj 
people officially, and signed all letters — except the 
few that were signed by Mr. Roosevelt himself 
■ — as " Secretary to Mr. Roosevelt." The result was 
that as we went through Europe I received cards to 
important functions and met important personages, 
which made my trip a peculiarly interesting one and 
enabled me to get an impression — that I could not I 
have otherwise received — of the way in which both 
the great and the plain people of Europe were 
affected by Roosevelt's personality. It is impossi- ji 
ble here to draw a detailed picture of this unique 
journey. I can only give sketches of what seemed 
to me to have been Interesting and significant 
incidents here and there. Nor shall I pursut 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 209 

diarial methods. I shall simply put down what 
my recollection suggests while I write. 

The first thing that I recall is my grateful relief 
at having the vexed question of tipping settled 
for me at the very beginning. I must explain 
that within twenty-four hours of meeting Mr. 
Roosevelt at Khartum I had charge of all his 
money, checks, letters of credit, etc., and undertook 
to pay all the bills. I bought a single-entry ledger 
and kept a careful account. Mr. Roosevelt would 
occasionally come to me and ask for a little pocket 
money, say twenty francs. I would reply: *'I 
will see if I can get it through the Committee on 
Appropriations''! This became a standing joke 
between us. 

I may say, running ahead a little, that when we 
sailed for New York from Southampton in June, 
I reported to Mr. Roosevelt that I had, as I recol- 
lect, the sum of about three thousand dollars to 
his credit. He answered with some surprise: 
That's good! That will help me to pay the 
duties on my baggage at the custom house." 
For he had declined to avail himself of the am- 
bassadorial privilege which had been offered to him 
3f entering the port of New York without an exami- 
nation of his baggage. I really think that if I 
bad told him that he owed me three thousand 



210 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

dollars he would have said: ''That's good! I 
supposed It was much more." 

The fact is that he had less interest in money, as 
mere money, than almost any man that I have ever 
known. He was very much more interested in work 
and service. In 1908, on visiting Sagamore Hill to 
conclude the final arrangements about his joining 
the staff of the Outlook^ when I mentioned the 
amount which we were prepared to pay him — a 
fairly large sum, it is true, for us, but a really small 
amount in comparison with offers that had been 
eagerly made him for journalistic and literary 
work — he put his arm around my shoulder and said: 
''Now, that is very good of you, Lawrence; but 
do you really think you can afford it ? I should be 
very sorry if my connection with the Outlook did 
not prove to be the advantage to you which you 
say you anticipate." And on September 10, 1909, 
he wrote me from the African jungle: 1 

The Outlook keeps me in touch with things just as I deslrei 
to be kept. I am exceedingly pleased at what you write as to| 
being satisfied with the effect of my editorials; I have been aj 
little uncomfortable lest you should feel that you weren'ti 
getting much good out of my connection with the magazine. 

So long as his family was well taken care of and| 
he had reasonably good food, reasonably appro-| 
priate clothing, and a reasonable opportunity t 



i 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 



211 



be hospitable to his friends, money meant nothing 
to him. His brother-in-law, the late Douglas 
Robinson, who was himself an eminently success- 
ful and systematic man of affairs, once told me that 
when Roosevelt was about leaving home to go into 
the Spanish War as Lieutenant-Colonel of the 
Rough Riders he, Douglas Robinson, could not 
by hook or crook persuade the Colonel to come 
down town in order to go over his investments 
and securities which were in Mr. Robinson's 
charge. Mr. Robinson finally got him to visit 
his office by saying: ''Theodore, if you don't 
come down and go over these papers and valuables 
with me I shall have to get Edith [Mrs. Roosevelt] 
to do it." Whereupon Mr. Roosevelt instantly 
consented, for he was not willing to impose a 
burden on his wife which he should assume himself. 
But I have strayed too soon from Africa. As 
we were leaving Khartum after a delightful stay 
of several days at the palace, Roosevelt asked 
me to be sure that the servants — both outdoors 
and in — were given suitable tips with an expression 
Df his thanks for their services to him. Now 
most of these servants were Nubians, black as 
to face and white as to garments and turbans. 
It was as impossible to tell one from another 
as it is to identify individual sheep feeding in 



212 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

a flock on a Western plain. In my puzzlement 
I went to Slatin Pasha's personal aide, a most 
kindly and agreeable young British officer, Captain 
Clayton. (If he has survived the European war 
and should ever happen to see these words I hope 
he will accept them as an expression of very real 
gratitude for all his courtesies.) I stated the 
situation frankly to Captain Clayton and asked 
him whether he could help me. He replied that 
if I would leave a sum of money with him he would 
see that it was properly distributed, and suggested 
that we both go in to Slatin Pasha and consult 
with him as to the proper amount. 

We did so. I found that both these gentlemen 
were more anxious to protect Roosevelt financially 
than I was. They named a sum, which I thought 
was not sufficient, and accepted as generous the 
amount I left on Roosevelt's behalf. Captain 
Clayton gave me an official receipt for this sum. 
This started me on my career, as a courier, re- 
joicing, and at every hotel I left a lump sum 
with the manager to be distributed among the 
domestics. I pursued the same method, which 
it seems was the method of royal and ambas- 
sadorial personages, at two or three of the palaces 
where Mr. Roosevelt was a guest. In each case 1 
had from an official a receipt like the following, 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 213 

which hes before me, written on paper bearing an 
embossed coat of arms : 

X Castle 

I acknowledge that I have received from Mr. Abbott the 
sum of one hundred dollars as a gratification to the servants 
of the Royal Palace from Mr. Roosevelt. 

Y.Z , 

Master of the Royal Household 
X , May 6, 1910. 

Such an experience as this was perhaps one of the 
least important, but certainly not one of the least 
interesting, of the journey — to an American at any 
rate. 

It was not until we began to approach Rome th^t 
the social and political atmosphere began to be 
impregnated with some of the electricity that I 
had seen so often play about the figure of Roosevelt 
at home. I refer, of course, to what is now known 
as the Vatican controversy. I can best tell the 
story by transcribing here the following memoran- 
dum which I wrote on board the steamship Prinz 
Heijirich on April i, 19 10, during the voyage from 
Alexandria to Naples: 

Mr. Roosevelt wrote from Gondokoro to Ambassador 
Leishman at Rome saying that he would be glad of the honour 
o^ a presentation to His Holiness, the Pope. At Cairo he 
received the following cable message from Mr. Leishman> 
dated Rome, March 23rd: 

"The Rector of the American Catholic College [Monsignot 



214 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Kennedy] in reply to the enquiry which I caused to be made, 
requests that the following communication be transmitted to 
you: 'The Holy Father will be delighted to grant audience 
to Mr. Roosevelt on April 5th and hopes that nothing will 
arise to prevent it such as the much regretted incident which 
made the reception of Mr. Fairbanks impossible.— Thomas 
Kennedy, Rector'. I merely transmit communication with- 
out having committed you in any way to accept the condi- 
tions imposed as the form appears objectionable, clearly in- 
dicating that the audience would be cancelled in case you 
should take any action while here that might be construed 
as countenancing the Methodist Mission work — Leishman." 

To this despatch Mr. Roosevelt replied by cable on March 
25th as follows: 

''Please present the following through Monsignor Ken- 
nedy: Tt would be a real pleasure to me to be presented to the 
Holy Father, for whom I entertain a high respect both per- 
sonally and as the head of a great Church. I fully recognize 
his entire right to receive or not to receive whomsoever he 
chooses for any reason that seems good to him, and if he does 
not receive me I shall not for a moment question the propriety 
of his action. On the other hand I, in my turn, must decline 
to make any stipulations or to submit to any conditions which 
in any way limit my freedom of conduct. I trust that on 
April 5th he will find it convenient to receive me.' — Roose- 
velt." 

It should be here stated that, while this correspondence was 
pending, Mr. Roosevelt had persistently declined, either 
directly or indirectly, to make any public engagements of 
any kind whatsoever in Rome, except his visit to the King. 
In order to go as far as he could with propriety in meeting the 
wishes of the Vatican he deferred his own decision as to any 
possible public engagements until his arrival in Rome. This 
had been his answer to all invitations; he felt that he would 
Ve obliged first to find out from the Ambassador the exact 
situation. 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 215 

Answering Mr. Roosevelt's despatch of March 25th, above 
quoted, Monsignor Kennedy on March 28th transmitted the 
following reply through Ambassador Leishman: 

"His Holiness would be much honoured to grant an au- 
dience to Mr. Roosevelt for whom he entertains high esteem 
both personally and as the former President of the United 
States. His Holiness quite recognizes Mr. Roosevelt's entire 
right to freedom of conduct. On the other hand, in view 
of circumstances, for which neither His Holiness nor Mr. 
Roosevelt is responsible, the audience could not take place 
except on the understanding expressed in former message." 

In response Mr. Roosevelt sent the following despatch to 
Ambassador Leishman: 

" Proposed presentation is of course now impossible. Please 
be scrupulously careful that not one word on matter is said 
until I see you in Rome. — Roosevelt." 

In some further cable correspondence the Ambassador 
suggested the desirability of Mr. Roosevelt's issuing a formal 
statement in order to prevent his attitude being misunder- 
stood or his exchange of notes with the Vatican being garbled 
by the press or other interested parties. In order, however, 
to give his personal friend and associate John Callan 
O'Laughlin — a Roman Catholic but a loyal supporter of Mr. 
Roosevelt's principles and position in the matter — a last 
chance to see whether the Vatican could not be persuaded, for 
the sake of the American Catholic Church, to change its 
stand, Mr. Roosevelt, very generously I think, deferred any 
personal statement or comment until Mr. O'Laughlin could 
go to Monsignor Kennedy himself. At this writing (April 
1st) Mr. O'Laughlin has, through his wife, cabled a message 
to Archbishop Falconio, the Papal legate at Washington, 
urging him to advise the Vatican that its action, if persisted 
in, would injure the Catholic Church in America. Mr. 
O'Laughlin goes by first train to Rome to-morrow morning, 
on our arrival in Naples, to see Monsignor Kennedy person- 
ally. I need hardly add that this is done on Mr. O'Laugh- 



2i6 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

lin's own initiative and is consented to by Mr. Roosevelt 
only on the explicit understanding that the consent is given 
out of a feeling of regard for his Catholic friends at home and 
lot because he himself has the slightest desire or inclination 
to urge his presentation to the Pope. It was explicitly 
understood by both Mr. O'Laughlin and myself that, under 
no consideration, would Mr. Roosevelt recede from the posi- 
tion taken by him in his cable message, above quoted, of the 
date of March 25th. 

The result, of course, was that Mr. Roosevelt 
did not meet the Pope. Nor did he visit the 
Methodist mission; he declined to receive the head 
of that mission, at the official reception which was 
given to him at the American Embassy, after it 
was definitely settled that he was not to go to the 
Vatican. From the beginning he had no intention 
of taking sides in the conflict between the Metho- 
dists and the Roman Church, a conflict which had 
arisen over the previous visit of Vice-President 
Fairbanks. His contention was solely that he 
must reserve the right to exercise his own judg- 
ment as to what his course should be without 
accepting conditions imposed by others. He cabled 
to New York the following statement with regard 
to the controversy: 

Through the Outlook I wish to make a statement to my 
fellow-Americans regarding what has occurred in connection 
with the Vatic«an. I am sure that the great majority of my 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 217 

fellow-citizens, Catholics quite as much as Protestants, will 
feel that I acted in the only way possible for an American to 
act, and because of this very fact I most earnestly hope that 
the incident will be treated in a matter-of-course way, as 
merely personal, and, above all, as not warranting the slight- 
est exhibition of rancour or bitterness. Among my best and 
closest friends are many Catholics. The respect and regard 
of those of my fellow- Americans who are Catholics are as dear 
to me as the respect and regard of those who are Protestants. 
On my journey through Africa I visited many Catholic as well 
as many Protestant missions, and I look forward to telling the 
people at home all that has been done by Protestants and 
Catholics alike, as I saw it, in the field of missionary en- 
deavour. It would cause me a real pang to have anything 
said or done that would hurt or give pain to my friends, what- 
ever their religious belief, but any merely personal considera- 
tions are of no consequence in this matter. The important 
consideration is the avoidance of harsh and bitter comment 
such as may excite mistrust and anger between and among 
good men. The more an American sees of other countries 
the more profound must be his feelings of gratitude that in 
his own land there is not merely complete toleration but the 
heartiest good will and sympathy between sincere and honest 
men of different faiths — good will and sympathy so complete 
that in the inevitable daily relations of our American life 
Catholics and Protestants meet together and work together 
without the thought of difference of creed being even pres- 
ent in their minds. This is a condition so vital to our 
National well-being that nothing should be permitted to 
jeopard it. Bitter comment and criticism, acrimonious 
attack and defense, are not only profitless but harmful, 
and to seize upon such an incident as this as an occasion 
for controversy would be wholly indefensible and should 
be frowned upon by Catholics and Protestants alike. I 
very earnestly hope that what I say will appeal to all good 
Americans. 



2i8 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Mr. John Callan O'Laughlin at the same time 
cabled the following statement to the New York 

Times: 

Familiar as I am with all the facts, and looking at his action 
from the viewpoint of an American Catholic, I personally 
feel that any other action Colonel Roosevelt might have 
taken would have resulted in the humiliation not only of 
himself but of the American people, Catholic as well as Pro- 
testant, and would have established an unwise precedent of 
serious consequences in the future. 

The controversy was clearly understood by 
ecclesiastics, in Italy and other parts of Europe, 
to be one not between Mr. Roosevelt and the Pope j 
but between Mr. Roosevelt and Cardinal Merry 
del Val, the Papal Secretary of State. Merry del 
Val was not only a prelate but an astute and able 
politician. I have always felt that he drew swords 
with Mr. Roosevelt in order to make a test of the 
question whether he was not more skilful than the 
American who had come to Europe with such a 
reputation as a political manager. The test was a 
complete one and showed that the Cardinal was 
out-generaled. 

In Vienna, the capital of the most ultramontane 
country In Europe, only a comparatively few days 
after the Vatican episode, the Papal Nuncio at that 
capital appeared at a reception given In honour of 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 219 

Mr. Roosevelt, and made this appearance in his 
official ecclesiastical robes. This was recognized 
in Vienna and elsewhere as a semi-official intimation 
that the high priests of the Church believed that 
Mr. Roosevelt was right and Merry del Val wrong. 
Immediately after this reception Roosevelt called 
officially on the Papal Nuncio who had returned 
! to his palace. This exchange of courtesies created 
considerable discussion and comment in the news- 
papers. By many it was expected that the Nuncio 
would be visited with some sort of discipline from 
the Vatican. He was not, however; and those 
who knew the inside of church politics said that 
it was the method which the Pope took to indicate 
that he did not wholly approve of Merry del Val's 
management of the affair. 

There were certain echoes of the controversy 
during the rest of the journey through Europe. 
At Porto Maurizio the distinguished novelist and 
poet, Antonio Fogazzaro, who died the following 
year, called upon Mr. Roosevelt and had a long 
and quiet personal interview with him. Fogazzaro, 
a devout Roman Catholic, had two or three years 
earlier published his novel, ''The Saint" — ^which 
dealt with the question of Modernism and was 
read around the world. This book was distinctly 
religious in spirit but also distinctly liberal in its 



220 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

theology. Because of its support of the Modern- 
ist movement it had been placed upon the Index 
Expurgatorius and the author disciplined by the 
Church. At the time of Mr. Roosevelt's visit 
Fogazzaro had made his submission and had been 
taken back into full communion. After Fogazzaro' s 
call I walked back with him to the town — Mr. 
and Mrs. Roosevelt were staying with Mrs. Roose- 
velt's sister at her villa on an outlying hillside — ' 
and he told me that because of his own somewhat 
delicate position in the Church and because of Mr. 
Roosevelt's controversy with the Vatican he had felt 
it necessary to ask his bishop whether he might 
make this personal call on the ex-President, and 
his bishop had told him to go by all means. Later 
on in the journey two or three Philippine friars 
had private interviews with Mr. Roosevelt with ! 
episcopal permission. These incidents confirm 
the opinion which I have already expressed that the 
sympathies of many of the influential dignitaries 
of the Church were with Mr. Roosevelt rather 
than with the pontifical Secretary of State. 

Although Mr. Roosevelt was not received at 
the Vatican he was received with great cordiality 
at the Quirinal. The King of Italy, Victor Eman- 
uel III, was the first of a considerable company 
of European monarchs that Mr. Roosevelt met 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 221 

on this tour. It was quite apparent that the kings 
Hked him. At all events, after the formal and 
punctilious hospitalities had been fulfilled they 
all, without exception, went out of their way to 
show him personal attention. There was some- 
thing about his personality that attracted them. 
European kings have not always had an entirely 
happy time even in days of peace. Their relations 
with their fellowmen are necessarily circumscribed 
and often artificial. With Roosevelt it was as 
though they said to themselves: *'Here is a real 
man that we can meet, talk to, and associate with 
as men, not kings. He won't kowtow to us and 
he won't embarrass us." There was really an 
element of pathos in it. 

When Mr. Roosevelt came home he was ac- 
cused, during the Progressive campaign, by some 
of his silliest opponents, of an ambition to become 
king of America. His comment on these foolish 
critics was: "I know kings and they don't. A 
king is a kind of cross between a vice-president 
and a leader of the Four Hundred. I have been 
vice-president, and know how hollow the honour 
is, and I have never had any desire to be a leader 
of the Four Hundred ! " There was nothing of per- 
sonal criticism in Roosevelt's democratic estimate 
of kingship. Indeed, he was drawn to the King of 



O^ ">. 



IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT | 



Italy because of the latter's democratic character, 
which later, during the European war, was respected 
and honoured by all the peoples of the Allies. After 
meeting Victor Emanuel somewhat informally 
Mr. Roosevelt came back to the hotel one night 
and said to me: ''I like the King. He is a genuine 
man — the kind of man who could carry his own 
ward in an election!" That the feeling was 
reciprocated was disclosed by an amusing incident. 
The King desired to have Mr. Roosevelt visit 
the famous Italian cavalry school in the neighbour- 
hood of Rome, the Italian cavalry being among 
the most expert war horsemen in the world. An 
appointment was made, and on the day and the 
hour named I was awaiting in the lobby of our 
hotel for the automobile to come for Mr. Roosevelt. 
The hotel was a quiet and pleasant one, much 
frequented by certain diplomats and functionaries, 
but was not one of the ultra-fashionable caravan- 
saries of the city. At the appointed hour a hand- 
some limousine drove up with a liveried chauffeur 
and footman. The King with his aide, the latter 
in his military uniform, alighted and came into the 
lobby of the hotel. The effect was electrical. The 
portier or doorman, the liftman, the manager, and ] 
the head waiter almost prostrated themselves in ; 
their ecstasy of surprise and delight at the honoux 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 223 

thus paid to their estabhshment. The King waited 
and drove Mr. Roosevelt off in great glee. I 
doubt if the King had ever visited a hotel in Rome 
in such fashion before. At all events, we learned 
afterward that the visit greatly enhanced the 
reputation of the hotel and were amused to hear 
that the proprietor had instituted a suit against the 
Paris Herald for saying that Mr. Roosevelt was a 
guest at some other hostelry, thus depriving him, 
the owner of the only genuine Roosevelt stopping 
place, of the important advertising benefit which he 
alleged that Mr. Roosevelt's visit conferred. 

After a strenuous week in Rome— which had been 
preceded by a fortnight of exhausting sight-seeing 
and speech-making in Egypt— Mr. Roosevelt went 
to Porto Maurizio, as I have already said, for a visit 
to Mrs. Roosevelt's sister and to enjoy a well- 
earned vacation. Porto Maurizio is a small but 
ancient and picturesque Italian city on the shore of 
the Mediterranean not far from the French frontier. 
Behind it lie hills and valleys thick with olive 
trees and vineyards, and still farther back is a fine 
range of mountains, capped with snow at the season 
of the year when Roosevelt made his visit. Every- 
where are roads and paths enticing to the walker 
and affording a constant succession of beautiful 
views of the characteristic Italian landscape. 



224 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

The pleasant villa of Mrs. Roosevelt's sister, 
Miss Carow, stands in a flowery garden on a 
hillside overlooking the sea. It was an ideal place 
for a rest. But in the lexicon of the cable, the 
telegraph, and the post-offices there is no such 
word as *'rest''; the eagerly anticipated vacation 
was broken into by a procession of messengers 
bringing communications — some, it is true, im- 
portant, but most of them of the greatest unimport- 
ance — ^who trooped to the *' Villa Magna Quies'' 
(which by a curious irony of fate means ** Villa 
of Great Quiet") at literally all hours of the day 
and night. Most of these communications were 
appeals for help in private cases or public affairs, 
or for political and personal advice, or to make 
engagements for lectures and speeches on Roose- 
velt's return to America. 

Speaking of these letters Roosevelt said to me: 
''These good people have expectations as to what 
I can do that would not be justified if I were 
George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and the 
Angel Gabriel all rolled into one.'' Indeed, 
during his entire European tour the number and 
character of the appeals that were made to him 
were almost incredible. It was half amusing 
and half exasperating to see how much of the 
time of an already over-driven man was taken 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 225 

up in answering epistolary demands and requests 
for interviews. 

The letters ranged from applications for auto- 
graphs, stamps, and picture postal cards to in- 
quiries as to his views on the Bacon-Shakespeare 
controversy; or for his opinion on the Referendum 
as applied to the matter of municipal expenditure; 
or for a description of a special kind of African 
antelope because "the pupils in this school would 
find it interesting"; or for an article for an Amer- 
ican college paper on *' Politics as a Career for 
Young Men of Means''; or, from a Hungarian 
editor, for a paper about *' Hungarian Emigration 
to the United States"; or for a review of a book of 
poems which was sent by the author; or for a 
''brief article" for a young men's lyceum on the 
question of "International Peace." I specify 
these because it happened that every one of these 
requests was contained in one morning's mail. 

With regard to this aspect of the trip I find the 
following in my journal, written at Budapest in 
April, 1910: 

Even while he was In Africa Mr. Roosevelt received re- 
quests that, without exaggeration, may be called appalling 
in their number and character. A favourite request was for 
tigers' claws, the writers being in beautiful ignorance of the 
fact that no tigers are found in Africa. Other unknown cor- 
respondents frequently asked for lions' claws, apparently not 



226 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

understanding that to take off the claws of course ruins the 
ckin, so that each request was practically that Mr. Roosevelt 
should go out and kill a lion exclusively for the benefit of a 
correspondent of whose previous existence he had never 
heard. He was appealed to for monkeys, parrots, and lion 
ci.bs by other well-meaning people; one gentleman wanted a 
pair of small elephants, another a pair of zebras, another a 
250-pound snake — these requests evidently being made in 
bland ignorance of the fact that to meet them would have 
demanded a totally different type of expedition, especially 
equipped at a cost of many thousands of dollars, to catch wild 
animals for the purpose of distributing them gratis to un- 
known individuals. As for requests for horns and skins on 
:he part of men who apparently thought that the expedition 
was conducted on a broad eleemosynary basis, they were 
legion — one man standing out above his fellows because oi 
his modest request for "enough leopard skins to make an 
overcoat"! 

All sorts of things are sent for Roosevelt's inspection or 
approval, or to reinforce a request for his special aid. Birth 
certificates, university diplomas, and papers of this kind 
which are of real value to the people who send them are for- 
warded to him by writers who apparently suppose that he has 
nothing to do but to make parcels and packages and buy 
postage stamps. In Austria one lady inclosed some well- 
worn newspaper clippings evidently taken from her most 
precious archives, one of them being an obituary notice of her 
late husband and the other a description of the costume she 
wore when she was presented some years ago at one of the 
royal courts of Europe. Another lady, a Russian, mailed to 
Mr. Roosevelt some papers connected with her son's univer- 
sity career, and because she did not get a personal reply by 
return of mail called at the hotel at seven o'clock in the morn- 
ing in a state of great agitation which was really pathetic to 
behold. A Hungarian artist sent a registered package con- 
taining a pen-and-ink portrait of the Emperor Francis Joseph 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 227 

which he had made with indescribable toil by shading the 
microscopic letters forming a biographical account in three 
thousand words of the Emperor's career. In the package 
was a large hand magnifying glass loaned for the purpose of 
examining the portrait, which the artist hoped would induce 
Mr. Roosevelt to give him a commission for a similar portrait 
of "the illustrious ex- President." Of course all these things 
have to be carefully sifted out, preserved, and returned, to do 
which involves an annoying expenditure of time and labour. 

I suppose that the daily correspondence of any well-known 
public man would furnish similar displays of the curious 
workings of certain human minds. 

While I was in the act of writing the words of the previous 
sentence a hall-boy of the hotel presented me with twelve 
visiting-cards, twelve letters, and four telegrams for Mr. 
Roosevelt, who at the moment is out inspecting the famous 
Agricultural Museum of Budapest. These communica- 
tions constitute a sort of light afternoon supplement to the 
daily batch of letters, the majority of which arrive in the 
morning hours. Of the telegrams one is in French and one in 
Hungarian or in German. Of course the Hungarian cor- 
respondence has to be specially translated before it can be 
attended to, as none of Mr. Roosevelt's immediate party has 
had time between letters to learn what is perhaps the most 
difficult of all modern European languages. One letter, how- 
ever, is from an entirely unknown correspondent in England. 
*'I write to ask," she says, "if you would feel inclined to help 
me. I am the widow of a clergyman, and since his death I 
have had heavy expenses which I cannot meet on my small 
income, but if I could get clear of debt I think my daughter 
and I could manage. I am trying to get three hundred 
pounds to relieve me of my burden." 

It is such correspondence as this that makes it impossible 
for a man of Mr. Roosevelt's public position to enjoy a real 
vacation unless he is absolutely cut off from the post-office, 
the telegraph, and the telephone. 



228 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

When the University of Christiania conferred 
upon Mr. Roosevelt the honorary degree of 
Doctor of Philosophy — a degree which had never 
been conferred before upon any person by the 
University — Professor Broch, Dean of the Faculty 
of Philosophy, likened Mr. Roosevelt to a railway 
engine whose course is concealed from the near-by 
spectator by a cloud of dust and smoke, but which, 
nevertheless, pursues its course with rapidity and 
power toward a definite goal, leaving behind it a 
straight and shining track. This semi-humorous 
analogy was not inappropriate to Mr. Roosevelt's 
journey through Europe. In my journal at the 
time I wrote: 

It is almost impossible for one who has been close to Mr. 
Roosevelt in this remarkable and unprecedented journey to 
appreciate its significance himself or to give any adequate 
idea to American readers of what It has meant to the people 
of Europe. If the reader will take a map and, with a 
pencil, trace the course of this journey, some faint notion 
may be obtained of what Mr. Roosevelt has done physically 
in his six weeks' tour between the dates of April 2d, when he 
landed in Naples, and May 15th, when he left Berlin for Lon- 
don. In miles alone the lineal distance which he has covered 
is prodigious — Naples to Rome, Rome to Genoa, Genoa to 
Porto Maurlzio, Porto Maurlzio back to Genoa, Genoa to 
Venice, Venice to Vienna, Vienna to Budapest, Budapest to 
Paris, Paris to Brussels, Brussels to The Hague, The Hague 
to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Copenhagen, Copenhagen to 
Christiania, Christiania to Stockholm, and Stockholm to Ber- 
lin! When it is considered that in each of these chief stopping 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 229 

places there were dinners, receptions, official festivities, pri- 
vate and personal calls, academic celebrations — and in four 
cities great public addresses — besides an uncounted number 
of greetings from and extemporaneous speeches to people 
gathered at railway stations, in schoolhouses, and in the 
village streets, it is not surprising that it is difficult in the 
midst of it all to form an intelligent impression of the signi- 
ficance and importance of such a journey in their correct 
proportion. 

The cumulative effect of the extraordinary 
pilgrimage was a very distinct impression that the 
people, the political leaders, and the rulers of 
Europe recognized in Roosevelt a personification 
of the moral power of human nature — the power 
not merely to appreciate high ideals but to put 
them into practical effect in every-day life. It is 
a painful thing to have to admit that so many 
good people are uninteresting and so many inter- 
esting people are not always good. Roosevelt 
was both thoroughly good and thoroughly interest- 
ing. In some respects his European tour may be 
said to have been a missionary journey in behalf 
of political and social morality; yet it was full of 
gayety and vivacity of life and he enjoyed its 
colour, its movement, its social festivities, and its 
good living with as much appreciation as a bon 
vivant. To quote again from my journal: 

The common people as well as many of the most distin- 
guished personages of Europe have not merely shown admira- 



230 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

tlon for Roosevelt's character but have found real fascination 
in his personality. People not merely want to see him out 
of curiosity, but when they have once seen him they want 
to be with him and talk to him. Everywhere the most strik- 
ing proofs have been given that he possesses in a very marked 
degree what issomewhat tritely called*' personal magnetism. " 

In Porto Maurizio, for instance, both the popular 
and the official receptions of Mr. Roosevelt were 
very remarkable in their recognition of his moral 
leadership. The town was placarded with posters, 
issued by the municipal authorities in the Italian 
language, in which a welcome was expressed to Mr. 
Roosevelt as *'the promoter of international peace 
and the champion of human fraternity and solida- 
rity." When he appeared on the streets the citizens 
— especially the working people and the peasants — 
bombarded his carriage with flowers, so that it was 
filled almost to overflowing. People leaned from 
the third-story windows of what in New York 
we should call tenement houses to throw down their 
home-made floral tokens. One day when he drove 
out into the country I saw an old peasant woman 
standing by her cottage door eagerly waiting the 
approach of the carriage, and when, with a trem- 
bling hand, she tossed to him a bunch of flowers, 
there was pinned to a large green leaf a scrap of 
paper, and on it, written with painful effort, the 
words: ''Viva, viva, viva Roosevelt!'' This old 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 231 

woman had never seen him before, would never 
see him again; she received, in acknowledgment, 
only a smile and a lift of the hat; and yet it was 
pathetically evident that she had been eager to 
pay her slight tribute to the man who stood, in her 
mind, as *'the champion of human fraternity." 

An incident in Paris showed in a delightful way 
Roosevelt's hold upon the ordinary man — upon 
those whom Lincoln called "the plain people." 
A feature of the Paris programme was a review 
of some French troops at Vincennes. Mr. Roose- 
velt went out to the field with the American Am- 
bassador, Mr. Bacon, and the French Ambassador 
to Washington, M. Jusserand. Each of the three 
was, of course, dressed in the conventional frock 
coat and high hat, but the general officer in com- 
mand asked Mr. Roosevelt if he would not like 
to ride. He quickly responded by mounting a 
horse with no opportunity of changing his costume 
beyond the addition of a pair of leggings which 
an orderly took off and placed at Mr. Roosevelt's 
disposal. The review was a successful and pic- 
turesque one. Some days later, while in Holland, 
Mr. Roosevelt received from the enlisted men 
the following letter, which bore in the upper left- 
hand corner a picture of a horse of the French 
cavalry: 



232 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Vincennes, le 27 Avril, igio. 
Monsieur le President Roosevelt: 

Nous sommes les cavaliers du 2* Escadron du 23* Dragons, 
et c'est le cheval Peppino de chez nous que vous avez monte 
pour la manoeuvre d'aujourd'hui. Nous en avons ete tres 
fiers et I'escadron ne I'oublira jamais. Nous respecterons 
ce cheval avec fidelite. Nous nous permettons de vous ecrire 
pour que vous le sachiez. Nous n'oublierons jamais non 
plus que nous vous avons vu. 

Nous sommes vos cavaliers respectueux et devoues, 
(Signe) : Les Cavaliers du 2^ Escadron, 

Qui Aiment l'Amerique. 

Or in English: 

Mr. President: 

We are the troopers of the 2nd Squadron of the 23rd Dra- 
goons, and this is our horse Peppino which you rode to-day at 
the manoeuvres. We were very proud of it, and the squadron 
will never forget it. We venture to write to you to assure you 
that we shall take care of this horse hereafter with the utmost 
respect. Nor shall we ever forget that we have seen you. 

We are, respectfully and devotedly, 

The Cavalrymen of the 2nd Squadron 

Who Admire America. 

These soldiers from the ranks, representing, as 
the phraseology of their letter shows, the modest 
homes of France, were not the less loyal to their 
own country because in so spontaneous and simple 
a fashion, with no personal axe to grind, they ex- 
pressed their appreciation of the human qualities 
which Mr. Roosevelt represented. 

There is no room in this impressionistic sketch 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 



2\ 



to give a detailed narrative of the visits to Belgium, 
to Holland, to Denmark, to Norway, and to Swe- 
den. In each of these countries Mr. Roosevelt was 
received with the most friendly courtesy and atten- 
tion by the rulers and by the people themselves. In 
Brussels he and his family dined with the King 
and Queen; in Holland they lunched with the 
Queen and her Consort; in Denmark they were 
the guests of the Crown Prince; in Christiania they 
were the guests of the King and the Queen at the 
Royal Palace; and in Stockholm, the guests of the 
Crown Prince and the Crown Princess at the Castle. 
The three great Scandinavian cities were beautifully 
decorated, and the hospitality both of the citizens 
and of the royal families was of the most generous 
character. Special ''saloon carriages'' (private cars, 
as we call them) and dining-cars, and in some cases 
special trains, were placed at the disposal of Mr. 
Roosevelt, his family, and his party by the govern- 
ment railways of France, Belgium, Holland, Den- 
mark, Norway, Sweden, and Germany; in the 
three Scandinavian kingdoms, in addition to am- 
bassadorial and royal dinners, splendid banquets 
were given in his honour by large bodies of citizens; 
and everywhere crowds of people lined the streets — 
eager to catch a glimpse of him and to cheer him 
as he passed. This rather bald account of what 



234 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

was really a beautiful, generous, spontaneous, and 
in many respects unprecedented hospitality is 
excusable only on the ground that American 
readers ought to know what friendliness was shown 
by the European peoples and governments to one 
whom they regarded as the representative of the 
best type of Americanism. Those Americans who 
had the pleasure of being near-at-hand spectators 
of these greetings learned that warm-hearted 
enthusiasm is not confined to races of southern 
blood; neither Italy nor France could have outdone 
the Viking cities of Scandinavia in either the public 
or private manifestations of approval of their dis- 
tinguished guest. 

Among my papers I find the following carefully- 
worked-out itinerary and time-table of the journey 
from Brussels to Copenhagen. It required, of 
course, much correspondence and many conferences 
with officials, and may give the reader an impres- 
sion that such a tour as Roosevelt's was not alto- 
gether a pleasure jaunt. 

THE HAGUE AND AMSTERDAM TRIP 

FROM BRUSSELS TAKE ONLY IN TRAIN THE LUGGAGE WHICH V/ILL 
BE REQUIRED FOR THE FIRST DAY, SEND THE OTHER LUGGAGE 
THROUGH, BUYING VALET's TICKET RIGHT THROUGH TO THE 
HAGUE, AND CHECKING ALL THE BAGGAGE ON THIS TICKET. 

Leave Brussels 7.53 a. m. Friday, April 29th, on private 
car attached to ordinary train. Meet special train coming 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 235 

from Holland at Roosendaal, at 9.53 a. m. and have carriage 
attached to it. Reach Arnheim at 12.30. Mr. Roosevelt 
and family then motor to Het Loo (the Palace) arriving at 
one o'clock, where they will lunch with the Queen at 1.30. 
Mr. Roosevelt will afterward leave Het Loo (Apeldoorn 
Station) at 3.40, on private car already arranged for, arriving 
Amsterdam at 5.05. (Mrs. and Miss Ethel Roosevelt will go 
to Hotel des Indes, The Hague: Mr. Beaupre will arrange 
their passage there.) Mr. Roosevelt will dine with the Bur- 
gomaster, and afterward a reception will be held at the house 
of Mr. A. J. Cremer. Leave Amsterdam the same evening 
on a special coach attached to the ordinary train, or on a spe- 
cial train, arriving at The Hague (Hotel des Indes) the same 
(Friday) evening. Mr. Beaupre is arranging the train from 
Amsterdam to The Hague. 

Saturday, April ^oth. Received by Queen Mother at 12 
o'clock. Mr. Roosevelt and family lunch with Minister of 
Foreign Affairs. Dine at Legation at 8 o'clock. Reception 
at 10 o'clock. Return to Hotel des Indes. 

Monday, May 2nd. Arrive Hamburg G.'^'t^ a. m., leaving 
again at 7.05 A. M. and arriving Copenhagen 4.48 P. m. Met 
at Station by Crown Prince. He will take Mr. Roosevelt 
and family In carriages to Palace. Messrs. Abbott and Har- 
per will stay at Hotel d'Angleterre. Mr. Egan will come to 
Palace at which presentation has been held, and he will take 
Mr. Roosevelt to meet Prince Vlademir and Prince Hans. 
Afterward return to Palace and dine with King. At 9.30 
^^o 10.30, at the Legation, will be an American Reception. 
Mrs. Roosevelt will be provided with a bouquet, so that she 
will not be expected to shake hands. Return to Palace to 
sleep. 

May ^rd. Tuesday: Leave by automobile at 8 A. M, Visit 
a Model Dairy, a Model Farm, and a Model "Small-Holder." 
Then to Roskilde to see the Cathedral, with the Royal burial 
places. From thence to Hollerd, to see the Castle of Fred- 
eriksburg, which contains the National Gallery, and from 



236 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

there, via Fredensborg, to Elsinore. Arrive at Elsinore about 
12 o'clock, and go aboard the Scandinavian-American fast 
passenger boat. Queen Maud, to Copenhagen, which will 
enable Mr. Roosevelt to see the beautiful coast of Sjaelland. 
Arrive in Copenhagen at about 2 o'clock. At 5.45 Munici- 
pality dinner, at which no ladies will be present, in view of 
the early departure that evening. Depart from Copenhagen 
for Christiania at 9.05 p.m. 

To this time-table I append the account which 
my friend Maurice Egan, American Minister to 
Denmark during Roosevelt's visit, has given me 
of some of the details and effects of the ex-Presi- 
dent's visit to Scandinavia: 

When it was finally settled that Colonel Roosevelt should 
come to Europe, the three Scandinavian consuls — at this 
time I happened to be American Minister in Denmark — 
showed the most .ardent interest. Denmark was especially 
interested because to the Danes Mr. Roosevelt represented 
a tendency toward that revolt against plutocracy which many 
of the Danes believed to be a menace to the best institutions 
of our country. He was also, without doubt, the most pic- 
turesque figure in the world at that time. As the Minister 
I was besieged with all kinds of questions as to whether Mr. 
Roosevelt would come or not. He made it so plain in many 
public utterances that I was a friend of his, and everybody in 
Denmark knew that I had been appointed by him, so that the 
Danes felt it was my duty to induce him to visit their coun- 
try. 

One day, speaking to my friend and colleague, the Nor- 
wegian Minister, I was astonished to discover that he felt 
that Mr. Roosevelt had not been exactly polite to the Nobel 
Prize Committee when he had refused to give — or postponed 
giving — the customary address of the Nobel Prize men at 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 237 

Christiania. Following this hint, which was very delicately 
given, I made some further investigations and discovered 
there there was a feeling among the Norwegians and the 
Swedes that no American ought to be offered the prize since 
the most distinguished of Americans had rather cavalierly 
refused to comply with the traditional condition. I said to 
a very influential member of the Committee: "If I had any- 
thing to do with the Nobel Prize I should certainly give it to 
either Mr. Elihu Root or Mr. Richard Watson Gilder." 
This was a feeler. "Oh," my friend said, "I do not think it 
would be worth while to name any American for that prize 
now." 

Mr. Roosevelt I knew very well would suffer any incon- 
venience rather than stand in the way of any fellow American 
receiving this honour, so I wrote at once three letters to be 
forwarded to him in Africa by various people. One was, I 
think, to our Consul at Naples. In a reasonable time his 
reply came. He was willing to give me a day or so at Copen- 
hagen. Of course, this was not enough. When I considered 
the presentation to the royalties, the ceremonies of the mu- 
nicipalities, the various courtesies which many of my Danish 
friends would feel it their duty to show them, I was in despair. 
Besides, I must secure him for Christiania first, where the 
great question of the Nobel Prize remained to be settled. I 
concealed the fact from my friends and the newspapers that 
he had promised to come to Copenhagen and in the meantime 
extorted a promise from him that he would go to Christiania 
as well. I communicated his determination to my colleague, 
Mr. Pierce, at Christiania who was delighted and who insisted 
in giving me credit for Mr. Roosevelt's consent at the Nor- 
wegian Court. 

A short time after this came a note from Frederick VIII 
asking me to come to see him. I presented myself. "My 
dear Mr. Minister, "he said, "my son Haakon tells me that you 
have induced your distinguished patriot to go to Christiania. 
Why cannot you induce him to come here.?" And then I 



238 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

answered: "If your Majesty wants him to come here I shall 
communicate your wish to Colonel Roosevelt, and he will 
consider at once your request as a command." The King 
was evidently very much pleased and then it occurred to me 
that I might just as well make Mr. Roosevelt's stay in Copen- 
hagen as splendid as possible. "I regret that my legation is 

not large enough for many guests " "Ah," the King 

interposed, "I shall be so pleased to have Colonel Roosevelt 
here, that although I am obliged to go for my health to the 
Riviera at the end of the week I shall command my son, the 
Crown Prince, to act for me and to give him all the attention 
that I would give if I could be present here." Then he broke 
off. "When do you think he is going to Germany and where 
do you think his Imperial Majesty will lodge him?" "Ah, 
In the palace at Potsdam I am sure," I answered. "I can do 
no less, and I should like to do more," his Majesty remarked; 
" I shall offer him and his family the palace of Christian VII." 
This I knew was considered a great honour, as nobody but a 
crowned head was received as guest in this palace; King Ed- 
ward and Queen Alexandra had been its last occupants. I 
at once telegraphed this to Colonel Roosevelt and asked him 
for more time. He replied, giving me a day or two more. 
After that it was my business to excite expectation, which the 
press was only too willing to do. The Crown Prince was most 
enthusiastic and, through the amiability of the Minister of 
Commerce I managed to secure all the properties, rugs, palms, 
etc., which were always used to adorn the station whenever 
royalty appeared. 

The question of ranking Colonel Roosevelt was a serious 
one. The Court Marshal was very much perturbed; what 
rank had an ex-President of the United States in his own 
country? As a colonel he would hardly be visible in the 
galaxy of court officials who would certainly be present at 
any function given in his honour. Throwing aside all the 
prejudices of democracy I suggested that he should be ranked 
as the late Consort of Queen Victoria or the present Prince 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 239 

Consort of the Queen of Holland, as a Royal Highness. Mrs. 
Roosevelt, Ethel, and Kermit were equally ranked, and Mr. 
Lawrence Abbott, of whom Mr. Roosevelt had enthusiasti- 
cally written, was put down as a visiting Minister Plenipoten- 
tiary. This made things easy. The station was quite as 
magnificent as it had been when the Czar of Russia or the 
Kaiser or King Edward came; our Consul-General, Mr. Bond, 
saw to that! 

The great day came; Copenhagen was in a furore of ex- 
pectation; the Crown Prince, accompanied by a brilliant 
suite, drove to the station; I followed at a reasonable distance 
with our best footmen on the box adorned with the largest 
red, white, and blue cockades we had ever used; my wife and 
daughter were too fine for words! The Crown Prince oc- 
cupied the centre of the circle and the dramatic effect, I said 
to myself, was going to be worthy of the occasion. Suddenly, 
Colonel Roosevelt escaped from Mr. Lawrence Abbott's guid 
ing hand, rushed through the train, and descended two cars 
below all this waiting magnificence. The Crown Prince, the 
tallest man in Europe, with the longest legs, ran down the 
platform to meet him; and after that we all went helter skel- 
ter. Colonel Roosevelt wore an army coat and an ancient 
sombrero. He seemed pleased beyond words to see us all. 1 
presented him very formally, ''Permit me, your Royal High- 
ness, to present to you His Excellency the late President of 
the United States." The Crown Prince bowed, shook Mr. 
Roosevelt warmly by the hand, and then Colonel Roosevelt 
said, ''Now I have lost my baggage. Let's go and look for 
it." The Prince was very much amused and felt that here 
at last was a human being. Mr. Lawrence Abbott was the 
only person at all perturbed by this incident of the missing 
trunks, for which he was in no wise responsible; so we left 
him, ranking as he did as a Minister Plenipotentiary, to look 
after the luggage! 

It had been arranged thai the Crown Prince should give a 
gala dinner at the Court tc be followed at ten o'clock by a 



240 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

reception at the American Legation. Neither Colonel Roose- 
velt nor Mrs. Roosevelt seemed especially perturbed about the 
loss of their evening clothes and I think that Kermit and Ethel 
would have been glad of any accident that kept them away 
from ceremonies; they had their own plans which had nothing 
to do with court functions. Colonel Roosevelt had his Nor- 
folk jacket brushed, Mrs. Roosevelt came in to dinner with 
the Crown Prince looking perfectly gracious and at ease in a 
travelling suit, and the dinner proceeded with unusual spirit 
and gayety. Royal people can safely be trusted, owing to 
their special education, to smoothe embarrassing situations 
and nobody seemed to remember whether Mr. Roosevelt wore 
a lounge coat or a uniform. Mademoiselle Wedel-Hainan who 
was one of the Ladies in Waiting to the old Queen, said : " It 
was worth while .to see how simply Mrs. Roosevelt acted on 
this occasion; nobody but royalty could have made a situation 
of that kind go ofF so well; Queen Alexandra did it once and 
just in the same way." The Crown Princess said to my wife: 
^'As Mrs. Roosevelt is a representative American woman 
nobody after this can ever say that they give too much atten- 
tion to dress. How embarrassing it would have been for us 
all if she had not accepted the situation in such a perfectly 
charming manner." Of course all Denmark knew the cir- 
cumstances the next day and the incident — trivial as it may 
seem — added a new ray to the star of glory of the visiting 
Americans. Before ten o'clock the missing trunks arrived 
and Mr. Lawrence Abbott, who was determined that every- 
thing should be technically correct, was happily relieved. 

At the reception at our legation later in the evening Colonel 
and Mrs. Roosevelt were able to appear in the usual cere- 
monial garb. We managed to crowd over three hundred 
persons into the drawing room and the dining room and, with 
a little prompting as to what language you should speak to 
each person — Colonel Roosevelt's German was excellent and 
his French very fair — he had a most enjoyable time which 
was reflected in the faces of everybody he met. He said the 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 241 

appropriate thing, being very receptive to any hint from the 
Minister who stood near him and pleased even the tenors of 
the opera by repeating something that was both cordial and 
appropriate. 

Altogether, no guest in Denmark ever left such an impres- 
sion of strength, of sincerity, of power as Mr. Roosevelt left. 
On my leaving Denmark last year. King Christian, formerly 
the Crown Prince said, most pleasantly: "Assure Colonel 
Roosevelt of my affectionate esteem. He is a man." 

Until Minister Egan gave me the foregoing 
description, while I was preparing this chapter, 
I was unaware that I had any standing higher than 
that of Secretary of Legation while on this journey. 
If I had only known that he had conferred upon me 
the brevet and temporary honour of a plenipoten- 
tiary rank it would have saved me perhaps one 
very embarrassing experience! 

On the day when we arrived in Christiania a 
luncheon, followed by a reception, was given at 
the house of the American Minister, Mr. Peirce. 
They were attended both by the King and by Mr. 
Roosevelt. King Haakon of Norway is a fine 
specimen of a man, six feet or a little over in height, 
of a well-shaped and athletic-looking figure; and 
his frank, open face bears the marks of strength, re- 
finement, and good health. His Queen is the 
daughter of King Edward of Great Britain. Hav- 
ing served in the British Navy, King Haakon spoke 
English perfectly. I left the reception earlj and 



242 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

went up to the sitting room or salon in the suite 
assigned to Mr. Roosevelt in the palace and began 
to Work with Harper on the mail and other matters 
connected with the journey. Before long the door 
opened and the King entered. I recognized him 
because I had just seen him at the reception; 
but he had taken off his frock coat, abandoned his 
high hat, and appeared in an ordinary suit of tweed 
— what we should call in this country abusiness suit. 
I rose, of course, and he began to talk to me about 
some details of Mr. Roosevelt's further journey to 
Stockholm for which the King wished his private 
saloon railway carriage to be employed. In his 
hand he had a letter about it which he gave me 
with some instructions. 

Just then the door opened again and in blew 
Mr. Roosevelt — I do not know what other verb to 
use to describe the refreshing breeziness which 
was characteristic of his unexpected appearance 
on any occasion. He still had on his frock coat 
and carried his high hat in his hand, for he had to 
stay at the reception until it was all over. 

The King was almost visibly embarrassed. It 
was as though he were saying to himself: "Now 
what shall I do to entertain this apostle of the 
strenuous life!" He remarked after a slight pause: 
*' Colonel Roosevelt, wouldn't you like a cup of 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 243 

tea ? " With real enthusiasm the Colonel answered : 
*'By George, your Majesty, the very thing I 
should like!" While Roosevelt punctiliously ob- 
served all the proprieties in his royal visits, he 
was perfectly natural, and as I have already re- 
marked, the kings apparently enjoyed for once 
having a free, natural, man-to-man relationship 
with a fellow-being. The King disappeared and in 
a few moments the folding doors were opened and 
there in an adjoining room was a pleasant tea-table, 
set in the English fashion, round which we all 
gathered. 

Mr. Roosevelt — and he was one of the best table- 
talkers and raconteurs that I have ever listened 
to — told stories of his frontier life in the West. I 
remember that he gave an account of meeting his 
friend Seth Bullock over the dead body of a des- 
perado whom they— as sheriff and deputy sheriff — 
were both pursuing during his ranching days. 
"Your Majesty," he said, ''is sufficiently familiar 
with grouse shooting in England to realize that 
we met in the attitude of 'My bird, I believe'." 
He told other tales of Seth Bullock, whom he 
greatly liked and respected, and said that he 
wished the King could meet Bullock as a fine type 
of western American. I rather think the King did 
meet him, for — and perhaps this afternoon tea 



244 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

suggested the idea to Roosevelt — he cabled to Seth 
Bullock to join him in London. This Bullock did; 
and there, with Roosevelt as friend and cicerone, 
he met many of the distinguished people of the 
day. 

Now that night a splendid state dinner was given 
in the palace in honour of Mr. Roosevelt. The 
guests, one or two hundred in number, under the 
direction of the Court Marshal, gathered at their 
places in the great state dining room. It was a 
fine company, for the Scandinavians are splendid 
physical specimens. There were, of course, many 
army and navy men in uniform and government 
officials resplendent with orders. 

At the high table, arranged like the speakers' 
table at an American banquet, sat the royal party 
consisting of the King with Mrs. Roosevelt and 
the Queen with Mr. Roosevelt. This table was 
on my right. We had reached the fish course, 
I think, when a liveried footman came to my 
left side, as was proper, and began to speak to 
me in Norwegian. Of course I did not under- 
stand a single word, but I saw that the man 
was labouring under some excitement. I wondered 
whether he could be warning me not to put any 
gold spoons into my pocket! I swung around — 
the better to hear him — with my back almost 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 245 

toward the royal table, when a gentleman down 
the table a little — my immediate companions not 
being able to speak English — leaned forward and 
said : '' He is trying to tell you that the King wishes 
to drink a glass of wine with you." I thereupon 
hastily turned around toward the royal table and 
saw the King smiling, with his wine glass charged, 
prepared to go through the Scandinavian ceremony 
of drinking a health. Fortunately I had been in 
Scandinavia before and I knew what this ceremony 
was, but I did not know whether I ought to follow 
my instinct and rise from my seat. Such a procedure, 
I felt, would make me a marked man, and whatever 
I may be at home I certainly was shy on this oc- 
casion. I wondered whether one with so low a 
rank as that of Secretary was entitled to rise. Of 
course, all this flashed through m.y mind far more 
quickly than I can describe it, and I determined 
to rise only half way, so that I should be only half 
wrong, in any event. This with bended and 
quaking knees I did, and proceeded to bow and 
smile and say "SkoV\ When the ceremony was 
finished I fell back in my chair with embarrassment 
^nd did not eat much for a course or two. 

Presently I saw another footman approach a 
gentleman in civilian dress, but with a brilliant 
order on his shirt front, at the opposite long table. 



244 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELI^ 

suggested the idea to Roosevelt — he cabled to Seth 
Bullock to join him in London. This Bullock did; 
and there, with Roosevelt as friend and cicerone, 
he met many of the distinguished people of the 
day. 

Now that night a splendid state dinner was given 
in the palace in honour of Mr. Roosevelt. The 
guests, one or two hundred in number, under the 
direction of the Court Marshal, gathered at their 
places in the great state dining room. It was a 
fine company, for the Scandinavians are splendid 
physical specimens. There were, of course, many 
army and navy men in uniform and government 
officials resplendent with orders. 

At the high table, arranged like the speakers' 
table at an American banquet, sat the royal party 
consisting of the King with Mrs. Roosevelt and 
the Queen with Mr. Roosevelt. This table was 
on my right. We had reached the fish course, 
I think, when a liveried footman came to my 
left side, as was proper, and began to speak to 
me in Norwegian. Of course I did not under- 
stand a single word, but I saw that the man 
was labouring under some excitement. I wondered 
whether he could be warning me not to put any 
gold spoons into my pocket! I swung around — 
the better to hear him — with my back almost 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 245 

toward the royal table, when a gentleman down 
the table a little — my immediate companions not 
being able to speak English — leaned forward and 
said : " He is trying to tell you that the King wishes 
to drink a glass of wine with you." I thereupon 
hastily turned around toward the royal table and 
saw the King smiling, with his wine glass charged, 
I prepared to go through the Scandinavian ceremony 
I of drinking a health. Fortunately I had been in 
Scandinavia before and I knew what this ceremony 
was, but I did not know whether I ought to follow 
I my instinct and rise from my seat. Such a procedure, 
I felt, would make me a marked man, and whatever 
I may be at home I certainly was shy on this oc- 
casion. I wondered whether one with so low a 
rank as that of Secretary was entitled to rise. Of 
course, all this flashed through m.y mind far more 
quickly than I can describe it, and I determined 
to rise only half way, so that I should be only half 
wrong, in any event. This with bended and 
quaking knees I did, and proceeded to bow and 
smile and say "SkoV. When the ceremony was 
finished I fell back in my chair with embarrassment 
^nd did not eat much for a course or two. 

Presently I saw another footman approach a 
gentleman in civilian dress, but with a brilliant 
order on his shirt front, at the opposite long table. 



246 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

This gentleman rose, and it was apparent that he 
wished he had been eight feet high. He chcked 
his heels together and with perfect precision went 
through the health-drinking ritual. I realized my 
mistake. I should have stood erect like the Minister 
Plenipotentiary — which it now seems I really was, 
by the grace of Dr. Egan ! 

After dinner the company adjourned to one of 
the fine and spacious reception rooms where we 
were, or some of us were, presented to the King. 
As I had been standing almost shoulder to shoulder 
to him that afternoon, and am about six feet in 
height myself, I determined to apologize for my 
awkwardness at dinner, so I said: "Your Majesty, 
I appreciate the honour which you did me by 
drinking a glass of wine with me at dinner, and 
if you saw a rather short man rise when you ex- 
pected to see a rather tall man I must explain that 
I have not been long enough in your hospitable 
country to know whether any one under the rank 
of an admiral or a general is entitled to rise on such 
an occasion; so, in my embarrassment of modesty, 
I rose only half way, and must have looked about 
as much out of place as a bent pin." Possibly 
the American frankness of it all amused the King. 
At all events, he laughed cordially and once or twice 
'n later correspondence with Mr. Roosevelt sent 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 247 

some kind of a friendly message to '*the bent 



pin"! 



Perhaps the most notable incident of this Euro- 
pean tour, at any rate in the light of subsequent 
history, was Roosevelt's meeting with the Kaiser 
in Berlin. His visit to the Prussian capital had 
been arranged before he left America, and was 
made for the purpose of delivering a lecture at 
the University of Berlin. This lecture did not 
particularly interest me. It was entitled: "The 
World Movement.'' I can't help feeling that 
Roosevelt subconsciously strove to impress the 
university pedants of Germany that an American 
democrat could be as scholarly and academic a3 
they were and could deal in abstract ideas as 
ponderously as they could. The address — in my 
judgment — does not compare in style, in content, 
or in effectiveness with his speeches at the Sorbonne 
and the Guildhall or with the extemporaneous 
address to the undergraduates of Cambridge. Nor 
was the ceremony itself as human and interesting 
as that at the Sorbonne, although it was much more 
elaborate and formal. It is true that a chorus 
of students — dressed in the rather theatrical and- 
bizarre costumes of their various "corps" — sang, 
as only Germans can sing, finely harmonized ar- 
rangements of "Hail Columbia" and "The Star- 



248 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Spangled Banner/' But the professors in their 
academic gowns struck me as rather stodgy. The 
Kaiser, dressed in what I supposed to be a Hussar's 
uniform, was in the audience; and, much as I 
despise his course in the European war, I must 
admit that he had a very marked attractiveness 
of personality and manner. 

On the day of his arrival in Berlin Roosevelt 
lunched with the Emperor at the palace in Potsdam 
and I had the good fortune to be one of the party. 
We went out from Berlin by special train and with 
a brilliant company of army and navy officers and 
government officials. Chancellor von Bethmann- 
Hollweg was of the party. Everything had been 
done by the Kaiser to make it evident that he 
wished to treat Roosevelt with special honour. 
For example, the day following the luncheon, the 
Kaiser invited Mr. Roosevelt to review with him 
some remarkable field manoeuvres of the German 
troops and they spent in this operation five hours 
together on horseback. 

Ex-Ambassador Henry White, who was the 
only civilian present except Kermit Roosevelt, 
described the scene to me that evening. The 
Emperor was dressed in the uniform of a general 
of his army, Mr. Roosevelt in a simple riding suit 
of khaki and a black slouch hat. As they sat side 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 249 

by side in the saddle, responding together to the 
salutes of the officers and troops who passed by in 
review, the scene must have been of dramatic in- 
terest — the only difference in their station being 
indicated by the fact that the Emperor was dressed 
in uniform while Mr. Roosevelt wore the dress in 
which he would ride across country at home, and 
by the manner of their salutes, the Emperor as 
commander-in-chief touching his visor, Mr. Roose- 
velt as private citizen raising his hat. During the 
review the Emperor, with his body-guard of officers 
in brilliant uniform gathered about him, raised his 
helmet and, turning to Roosevelt, said in German: 
'' Roosevelt, mein Freund, I wish to welcome you in 
Ae presence of my guards; I ask you to remember 
that you are the only private citizen who ever 
reviewed the troops of Germany." Those who are 
familiar with the strict military procedure of the 
German Empire under Kaiser Wilhelm II and who 
understand the intimacy of the German expression 
''mein Freund,'' can understand the real intention 
of the Kaiser to impress his officers and the country 
with his desire to confer what he believed was a 
mark of distinction upon Roosevelt. 

Roosevelt appreciated these courtesies but I 
think he rather felt the element of mediaevalism 
and artificiality in them. At all events, they did 



2SO IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

not turn his head as similar flatteries turned the 
heads of some American exchange professors to 
Germany during the European war, for at the 
very outset he denounced the invasion of Belgium. 
In its issue of September 23, 1914, the Outlook 
published an article by him, which had been written 
at least ten days previously, in which he said : 

When once Belgium was invaded, every circumstance of 
national honour and interest forced England to act precisely 
as she did act. She could not have held up her head among 
nations had she acted otherwise. In particular, she is en- 
titled to the praise of all true lovers of peace, for it is only by 
action such as she took that neutrality treaties and treaties 
guaranteeing the rights of small Powers will ever be given any 
Value. . . . What action our Government can or will 
\ake, I know not. It has been announced that no action can 
be taken that will interfere with our entire neutrality. . . . 
Neutrality may be of prime necessity in order to preserve our 
own interests and maintain peace in so much of the world as 
is not affected by the war. . . But it is a grim comment 
on the professional pacifist theories as hitherto developed 
that our duty to preserve peace for ourselves may necessarily 
mean the abandonment of all effective effort to secure peace 
for other unoffending nations which through no fault of their 
own are dragged into the war. 

When this article was being written I was en- 
deavouring, although not a Wilson man, to give 
support to the President as the representative 
of the whole country in a time of crisis. At my 
request Roosevelt put into the article some caveaU 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 25^ 

as to Mr. Wilson's policy of neutrality in the 
hope that Wilson might slowly come to see the 
need of defending Belgium. These caveats, taken 
from their context, some of his unscrupulous 
political antagonists tried to employ later to show 
that at the outbreak of the war he did not feel 
about the rape of Belgium as he did later in the 
struggle. For this error of judgment, which was 
due to my desire to be loyal to the Government 
as well as non-partisan, I am afraid Roosevelt 
never forgave me, although he never alluded to it 
in criticism or blame. From the very beginning 
his own sentiments expressed in private conversa- 
tion were those uttered in the following telegram, 
sent on December 28, 1916, to Mr. W. J. Hand, 
a lawyer and citizen of Scranton, Pennsylvania, 
who was chairman of a Belgian Protest Meeting 
held in the town hall of that city, 

I wish all success to your meeting. Every American 
worthy of the name should join in indignant and emphatic 
protest against the hideous wrong-doing committed by Ger- 
many in Belgium. Righteousness comes before peace, and 
neutrality between right and wrong is as immoral now as in 
the days of Pontius Pilate. 

This whole episode I have described fully in an 
article which was published in the Outlook of 
March 29, 191 6. My interpretation was con- 



252 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

firmed by an editorial in the Kansas City Star of 
March 31st: 

The Star can add confirmatory evidence. Colonel Roose- 
velt spoke in Kansas City, Kansas, on September 21, 1914. 
To at least one member of the Star staff at that time 
he expressed forcibly his views regarding the duty of the 
United States toward Belgium, and added that he did not 
know how much longer he was going to be able to keep from 
speaking out on this subject. A few weeks later he made his 
first public declaration in criticism of the Administration's 
attitude. 

But to go back for a moment to the luncheon 
at Potsdam. It was perfectly appointed and 
managed and the etiquette of precedence was 
scrupulously observed. It was served at small 
round tables in one of the state dining rooms to a 
company of, I should say, fifty or sixty ladies and 
gentlemen, including Mrs. Roosevelt, the Empress, 
and ladies of the Court. On leaving the table 
we adjourned to a great reception room known as 
the Muschelsaal, so called because the artist who 
built it in Frederick the Great's time stuck the 
yet-soft plaster full of iridescent mussel shells with 
the typically Prussian notion of aesthetics that 
this would form a decoration of beauty. It is 
hardly necessary to add that it does not. Colonel 
Roosevelt and the Kaiser withdrew to one corner 
of the great Mussel Salon and entered into a lively 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 253 

conversation. The rest of the party remained at 
the other end of the room chatting as a group of 
guests would do anywhere at a special luncheon. 

After some time had elapsed I noticed the mili- 
tary commander in charge of the affair — I think 
it was General von Plessin — go up and whisper 
to Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg. The two 
pulled out their watches and then consulted Baron 
Schon, the Minister of the Interior. The three 
next went to the Empress and talked with her in 
low voices. Their agitation was so marked and 
so out of keeping with what had been the precision 
thus far observed that I turned to a young captain 
of infantry whose acquaintance I had made coming 
out on the train and who spoke English perfectly 
and knew my official relation to Roosevelt, and 
said: "May I ask if anything has gone wrong ?*' 
He replied: "Yes, the special train returns to 
Berlin at four o'clock. It is now twenty minutes 
to four and we are afraid that we shall not reach 
the station in time." Of course in those days if a 
German railway train, especially a royal railway 
train, was delayed the entire operation of the em- 
pire was apt, temporarily at least, to go to pieces. 
But the exacting and all-powerful domination of 
the Kaiser was such, and the officers of his Court 
had been so trained from their earliest youth. 



254 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

that there was not one person in that room^ — not 
even the Prime Minister of the Empire, not even 
the Empress herself — who dared step across the 
floor and remind the Kaiser of an important en- 
gagement. No one could leave the room until he 
gave the signal. 

By and by he came out of the hypnotic influence 
which seemed to be exercised by the ** Colonel of 
the Rough Riders" (as the Kaiser liked to call him) 
and gave the necessary intimation that we were to 
go. We were rushed to the station, piling into 
the vehicles with very little attention to the pre- 
cedence which had been scrupulously observed 
when we came from Berlin In the morning, and 
barely got our train. This Incident seemed amus- 
ing to me at the time, but I now think that it wa? 
much more than amusing, that it had an important 
significance. It was a symptom of that kind of 
Idolatory which led the German people to follow the 
Kaiser and his Potsdam circle into the greatest 
national disaster of history. 

But the Kaiser and his Court ought not to form 
the final recollection of the continent of Europe 
which this journey affords. And it shall not. 

I return to Brussels for a moment to pay a tribute 
of respect and admiration to King Albert and 
Queen Elizabeth of Belgium. They entertained 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 



-:>b 



Mr. Roosevelt and his party at a delightful 
dinner at the Palace of Laeken, which lies in 
a beautiful park in the suburbs of the capital. 
Their genuineness, simplicity, and cordiality were 
of a kind which has been proved to be characteristic 
of the three personages who, in the history of the 
European war, will stand out supremely, I think, 
for nobility of character and heroism of action. 
The third is the Belgian Cardinal, Mercier. 

Queen Elizabeth is of a German royal family but 
she threw in her lot with her husband and adopted 
his people in a way that entitles her to an honour 
far higher than can be conferred by any coronet 
or hereditary rank. She is not only a woman of 
noble character but of high intelligence. She had 
studied medicine and I was told practised philan- 
thropically not a little among the poor of Brussels 
by whom she was fairly idolized. 

During the evening, after dinner, learning that I 
was Secretary to Mr. Roosevelt, she sought me 
out and engaged me for some time in a conversa- 
tion about his personality and career. She was 
much interested in the political situation in the 
United States at the time, and I explained to her 
as well as I could some of the policies and move- 
ments which Roosevelt had espoused and led, and 
which on the one hand drew about him as great 



256 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

a company of devoted admirers, and on the other 
hand ranged against him as strong and vigorous 
an opposition, as the poHtical history of the United 
States had ever displayed. Her grasp and under- 
standing of such questions seemed to me to be 
quite extraordinary in a foreigner. But King Albert 
had visited the United States some years before 
in quite an informal way and made a study of 
our institutions. Both the King and the Queen, 
democratic and human by nature, looked with 
especial interest upon the development of demo- 
cratic institutions in America. 

From Berlin Roosevelt went to England. Many 
of his experiences there have been set forth in other 
chapters. The chief object of his visit when he 
left America was to give the Romanes lecture at 
Oxford and to receive from that celebrated univer- 
sity the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law. 
Regarding this occasion I may quote from an 
introduction which I contributed to the volume 
of his "African and European Addresses": 

The Romanes lecture at Oxford University was the last 
of Mr. Roosevelt's transatlantic speeches. I can think of no 
greater intellectual honour that an English-speaking man can 
receive than to have conferred upon him by the queen of 
all universities the highest honorary degree in her power 
to give, and in addition, to be Invited to address the digni- 
tarie;j and dons and doctors of that university as a scholar 



AFRICAN AND EL/.OPEAN TOUR 257 

speaking to scholars. There is no American university man 
who may not feel entirely satisfied with the way in which 
the American university graduate stood the Oxford test on 
that occasion. He took in good part the jokes and pleas- 
antries pronounced in Latin by the Chancellor, Lord Curzon; 
but after the ceremonies of initiation were finished, after the 
beadles had, in response to the order of the Chancellor, con- 
ducted ''Doctorem Ho7iorabile7n ad Pulpitum" and after the 
Chancellor had — this time in very direct and beautiful Eng- 
lish — welcomed him to membership in the University, Mr. 
Roosevelt delivered an address the serious scholarship of 
which held the interest of those who heard it and arrested . 
the attention of many thousands of others who received 
the lecture through the printed page. 

As I have been writing these words I have also 
been looking over again this Oxford-Romanes 
lecture. I find in it a passage which strikes me 
with new force. It confirms, I think, the inter- 
pretation of his internationalism which will be 
found at the conclusion of the chapter on States- 
manship: 

The foreign policy of a great and self-respecting country 
should be conducted on exactly the same plane of honour, 
of insistence upon one's own rights, and of respect for the 
rights of others, that marks the conduct of a brave and hon- 
ourable man when dealing with his fellows. Permit me to 
support this statement out of my own experience. For nearly 
eight years I was the head of a great nation, and charged es- 
pecially with the conduct of its foreign policy; and during those 
years I took no action with reference to any other people on 
the face of the earth that I would not have felt justified in 
taking as an individual in dealing with other individuals. 



258 IMPRESSIONS OF IHEODORE ROOSEVELT 

If I were to try to put in a single phrase the 
impression which Roosevelt made upon Europe I 
should say it was that of personal magnetism. 

This magnetic quality of Roosevelt's, which 
acted as a kind of electrical stimulant upon those 
who came in contact with him, was remarked upon 
in a striking way by the physician who attended 
him In London. Unceasing private conversations 
and innumerable public and semi-public speeches 
during his journey tore his voice literally to pieces; 
In Berlin he was under the care of a throat specialist 
and for a day or two it was a question whether he 
himself would be able to read his address at the Uni- 
versity of Berlin. In London, while he was staying 
at the house of his friend Sir Arthur Lee, one of the 
most distinguished throat surgeons in Great Britain 
gave him daily treatments to remove the hoarse- 
ness which had attacked his overstrained vocal 
chords. When this surgeon was leaving the house 
after his last professonal visit, just before our de- 
parture for America, it was my duty to pay his fee, 
and, having performed this formality, I walked 
out with him to his waiting automobile brougham. 
He kept me standing on the sidewalk for some 
moments while he talked about Roosevelt, ex- 
pressing his admiration for him and his astonish- 
ment at his extraordinary personality. *'In all 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 259 

my experience/' he said, ''I have never known 
anything Uke that man's vigour. Usually when 
I treat a patient as I have been treating Colonel 
Roosevelt I feel that some of my vital force has 
gone out of me into the patient and I come away 
slightly relaxed or exhausted. I suppose all 
physicians have the same feeling, in similar circum- 
stances. But I have been treating Colonel Roose- 
velt now for several days; and each time, instead of 
coming away relaxed, I have come away invigour- 
ated, as though some kind of vital energy had passed 
from hivi into me instead of from 7ne into him! 

Readers of this volume will have surmised al- 
ready that this vital energy of Roosevelt's — ^which 
not only enabled him to do an unprecedented 
amount of work but also inspired and toned up all 
his associates to efforts and desires that surprised 
them when they stopped to think about it — was 
the characteristic for which he will be longest 
remembered by his contemporaries. It is, how- 
ever, a force of character very difficult to describe, 
in language which does not seem extravagant, to 
those who did not know him and did not come 
within range of his electric vitality. 

There were all sorts of echoes in America of this 
Old World tour. One of the most interesting, to 
me, is that contained in a letter which I received in 



26o IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

1 916 from Madame Le Braz, the American wife 
of Professor Anatole Le Braz of the University 
of Rennes in France. Madame Le Braz, who died 
not long after Mr. Roosevelt, was a Kentuckian 
of great cultivation and charm. She knew of and 
shared my admiration for Roosevelt, and her letter, 
while only a part of it deals with his African 
expedition, will perhaps make a not inappropriate 
conclusion to this chapter. She wrote: 

It was in August of 191 2. 1 was traveling with a dear 
friend, a schoolmate of my younger sister, from Paris to 
Montreux. When the train stopped at Lausanne, a man sit- 
t-uig opposite us in the railway carriage descended, taking oc- 
casion for exercise to walk up and down the platform during 
the fifteen minutes' wait at the station. During his absence 
I took the liberty of looking at an American magazine con- 
taining an article on Mr. Roosevelt and the political situa- 
tion in America, which he had been reading. In European 
papers the space devoted to news of happenings and politics 
in America was so brief that I was hungry for fuller accounts 
of the intensely interesting turn of events over there in the 
New World — at once the melting pot and practical labora- 
tory for the nations and ideas of Europe. 

Mr. Roosevelt — representing In himself, in a singular and 
striking way, the union of radical and conservative ideas and 
of conservative and radical action — had already come to 
represent (for me) the most truly American of all America's 
distinctive spirit and genius. With a knowledge of the 
past, and a grasp and vision of the future, and a consequent 
characteristic fearlessness of speech and action, he so mysti- 
fies the slow-thinking heavy brains, that they call him in- 
consistent — ^just because they cannot keep pace with the 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 261 

brilliant, versarile mind which bares like a searchlight the 
truth of things. Never losing sight of the general view 
and meaning as a whole, he nevertheless has the faculty of 
attention to the details of events as they pass, which enables 
him to judge justly and generously of both people and things, 
while he turns from one to another — passing judgment in a 
way that at times seems harsh to those whose very fear of 
inconsistency acts as fear always acts — arresting powers, 
whether of body or mind, of digestion or clear thinking. 
Another reason that he is capable of dealing with all, is be- 
cause he cares to look all squarely in the face. His li^e both 
private and public is an open book, he is "gentleman un- 
afraid." There certainly are many who, for personal or 
political reasons, or both, detest this great man. My friend 
was one of these; her mother had been a warm friend of "dear 
Maria"; she heartily disapproved, and could not see or 
acknowledge any good in Mr. Roosevelt. We agreed so en- 
tirely on many, indeed most, subjects and views of Hfe, that 
when we wanted to enjoy the spice of a real argument, with 
our view^s wholly and diametrically opposed, we opened the 
subject of this great American. 

Thus had we just been arguing when the owner of the 
magazine returned to his place in the carriage, and the train 
moved out of the station. He politely begged me to keep 
the article, if I was interested, and we began to speak of 
America. His speech was very English in intonation and 
when I asked if he was American he said "Yes" — but ex- 
plained that he had been educated partly in England. 

In course of conversation I mentioned the fact that my 
friend and I did not agree in any particular on the subject of 
Mr. Roosevelt. I added: "She denounces him as unfair, un- 
truthful, unjust, and so on; she makes statements sometimes 
which I cannot refute with facts, though I feel sure they might 
be refuted. For instance, she declares that Mr. Roosevelt 
was not at San Juan Hill, but several miles distant." 

To this our fellow passenger replied promptly; "Well, 



262 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

he was very much there; I wasn't thirty feet away from him, 
*ind I tell you he put courage into the hearts of us all. I can 
cruthfully say that his spirit and fearlessness inspired every 
mother's son. I don't approve of all he has done lately, 
['m sorry he has broken with his party and taken the stand 
he has, but it is because I admire him so much that 
I regret his present attitude. He is a wonderful man; 
his ability to see and act quickly and calmly in the midst 
'^f confusion and excitement is amazing and was well proved, 
^or instance, in the charge, when Hamilton Fish fell, Roose- 
velt took time to say to some of those near at hand: 'If 
there's a spark of life in Fish for God's sake get him to a hos- 
pital!'" 

Our fellow passenger's actual name we did not learn. We 
left the train at Montreux, but he had told us that he was 
nephew or grandson of General Beauregard, and he had been 
one of the Rough Riders under Theodore Roosevelt. This 
incident answered very directly my friend's accusation as to 
the question of San Juan Hill. Later my arguments in Mr. 
Roosevelt's favour were to find further confirmation quite 
as unexpected and even more far-reaching. 

We had taken passage for our return to America on the 
same ship that had carried us to England. On the list of 
passengers I noticed the name of Sir Percy Girouard. His 
brother had married a distant cousin of mine, and I was in- 
terested to meet this Canadian who had been Governor suc- 
cessively of two colonies of South Africa during an absence 
of thirteen years from Canada. The first day my friend 
and I amused ourselves guessing which might be Sir Percy. 
Our decision finally rested between two of the passengers; 
one of these wore a monocle — with perfect right and pro- 
priety, I may add, for he had only the sight of one eye, as 
he himself admitted to us later. This was Sir Percy. He 
was very agreeable and entertaining. We spoke of things for- 
eign and American and naturally of Mr. Roosevelt. 

\ explained that my friend Miss X and I did not at 



AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN TOUR 263 

all agree as to Mr. Roosevelt, and then I could not help 
recounting the experience in the railway carriage on the way 
to Montreux. Whereat Sir Percy, growing more and more 
enthusiastic, continued the Rough Rider's eulogy of our great 
American by telling of his own experience. He said that, 
when Governor of the Protectorate of East Africa, it was his 
privilege to have Colonel Roosevelt as his guest (for three 
weeks I think he said but I am not sure that I recall just the 
time he stated). Both he and his wife, he told us, felt something 
of consternation at the prospect of a visit from this strenu- 
ous American, accounts of whose amazing energy in every 
line had given the impression that they would find it hard 
indeed to entertain him — endlessly fatiguing to say the least. 
"Well," said Sir Percy, "we were never more delightfully 
surprised, for a more charming guest in every way it would 
be impossible to imagine. Mr. Roosevelt was a constant 
wonder and delight to us all. I was amazed at the brilliancy, 
the versatility, the grasp and scope of his mind. Among the 
other guests were several men of note in their line, and v/hen 
he spoke with a certain great scientist on that one's preferred 
subject, one would have thought he had studied that ques- 
tion by preference to all others. When he spoke with an 
eminent artist, one might judge that art had occupied his 
attention more especially than other things. He seemed 
strangely at home — if I may say so — on all subjects. I have 
never met any one who gave so quickly and decidedly this 
impression. One is staggered at the thought of all he must 
have read and studied and retained; and this with the very 
active life at all times that he has had — the very full life of a 
great public man. It is nothing short of astounding. 
I have served under five of the great men of England, of 
the world — under Kitchener, Lord Roberts, Lord Cromer. 
. . . [I have forgotten two of the five names that Sir 
Percy mentioned]; I knew Cecil Rhodes very well — I'll just 
throw him in for good measure; and I say to you your Mr. 
Roosevelt is far and away greater than them all,'" 



CHAPTER VIII 
PERSONAL QUALITIES 

ONE of the greatest figures in the history of 
English Hterature is that of a man whose 
writings are httle read to-day, except by academic 
students who are compelled to dig into abandoned 
literary dust heaps. Few moderns read **The 
Vanity of Human Wishes'' or "Rasselas'' for 
pleasure, but no English writer gives greater 
pleasure to a whole army of readers than the author 
of these nearly obsolete literary productions — Dr. 
Samuel Johnson. His writings are half forgotten, 
but he himself lives and moves and talks with us 
to-day as he did more than a century ago, with the 
group of cronies and friends in Grub Street — a 
group which has been made immortal by his as- 
sociation with It. Dr. Johnson was what we call 
a "character" — a man in whom the ordinary 
human qualities were developed and manifested 
in an extraordinary degree. His humour, his 
epigrammatic wit, his common-sense philosophy, 
his downright honesty and sincerity, his satire 

of all that was mean and shabby, his admiration 

264 



PERSONAL QUALITIES 265 

for what was genuine and fine, his self-respect and 
self-rehance in the face of poverty and physical ills, 
, his marvellous vitality, his sure-footed sympathy, 
which enabled him to find the real and detect the 
sham in human society, regardless of the distinction 
of poverty or wealth or past or class, have drawn 
men to him in a kind of affectionate attachment 
possessed by no other English writer. What Dr. 
Johnson gave to the world was not literature but 
personality. 

So I believe that Theodore Roosevelt's greatest 
contribution to his country and his time was per- 
sonality — was Theodore Roosevelt himself. Un- 
like Dr. Johnson, he made great and permanent 
contributions to the policies and the social life 
of his period. He showed more clearly than any 
other American statesman that International peace 
rests on justice and morals expressed through 
physical power; by his action in Cuba and In the 
Philippines he established the precedent for the 
colonial policy of the proposed League of Nations, 
namely, that colonies shall be administered as a 
trust for the benefit of the Inhabitants; the Panama 
Canal is his creation as much as if he had digged 
It with his own hand. But It Is as a living, breath- 
ing human person that he will be longest remem- 
bered. There doubtless have been greater states- 



266 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

men, greater writers, greater explorers, greater 
preachers, greater soldiers; but there never was 
a greater patriot, nor has any one individual man 
in modern times touched so many and so varied 
fields of activity in human life with such zest and 
vitality, or with such practical and successful 
achievements in all of them. Among soldiers he 
was greeted as a soldier; among statesmen, as a 
statesman; among pioneers and woodsmen, as a 
hunter and naturalist; among scientists, as a 
scholar and explorer; among men of letters, as a 
writer and historian; among preachers, as a teacher 
of morals; among kings, as a man of royal preroga 
Tives; among plain men and women, as a fellow 
citizen and democrat; and — last, but far from 
least — among children, as a protector and sym- 
pathetic companion. His personality was a unique 
and unprecedented combination of many qualities, 
any one of which, carried to a high development, 
makes what we call a great man. 

Personality is an illusive and mysterious force, 
easy to perceive and feel but hard to define. I 
know of no better a definition than that given in 
one of his books on Japan by Perclval Lowell, the 
astronomer. 

About certain people there exists a subtle something which 
leaves its impress indelibly upon the consciousness of all who 



PERSONAL QUALITIES 267 

come in contact with them. This something is a power, but 
a power of so indefinable description that we beg definition 
by calHng it simply the personality of the man. It is not a 
matter of subsequent reasoning, but of direct perception. 
We feel it. Sometimes it charms us; sometimes it repels. 
But we can no more be oblivious to it than we can to the tem- 
perature of the air. Its possessor has but to enter the room 
and insensibly we are conscious of a presence. It is as if we 
had suddenly been placed in the field of a magnetic force. 



Roosevelt had this magnetic force of personality 
in a very marked degree. It surrounded him as a 
kind of nimbus, imperceptible but irresistibly 
drawing to him everyone who came into his pres- 
ence — even those who believed they were antag- 
onistic or inimical to him. It is impossible in 
a sketch of this character to make a complete 
analysis of Roosevelt's magnetic personality or to 
achieve a full and rounded portrait with a careful 
nnd accurately studied perspective. I shall content 
myself with speaking of the four of his qualities 
which made the greatest impression upon me. 
The first was his Caution. 

To speak of caution as a characteristic of Theo- 
dore Roosevelt will strike many readers who did 
not know him intimately as being amusing. He 
was popularly supposed to be rash, Impetuous, 
impulsive; to act upon the spur of the moment: 
to follow the emotion that controlled him for thf^ 



268 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

time being. Nothing could be further from the 
truth. He was not only a believer in preparedness 
in national life but in individual life as well. Very 
early in his career he found that he was hampered 
by certain physical defects and he set to work with 
care and deliberation to make himself vigorous and 
strong. He tells the story in his autobiography: 



Having been a sickly boy, with no natural bodily prowess, 
and having lived much at home, I was at first quite unable 
to hold my own when thrown into contact with other boys of 
rougher antecedents. I was nervous and timid. Yet from 
reading of the people I admired — ranging from the soldiers 
of Valley Forge and Morgan's riflemen to the heroes of my 
favourite stories — and from hearing of the feats performed by 
my Southern forefathers and kinsfolk, and from knowing my 
father, I felt a great admiration for men who were fearless 
and who could hold their own in the world, and I had a great 
desire to be like them. 

Until I was nearly fourteen I let this desire take no more 
definite shape than day-dreams. Then an incident happened 
that did me real good. Having an attack of asthma, I 
was sent oflF by myself to Moosehead Lake. On the stage- 
coach ride thither I encountered a couple of other boys 
who were about my own age, but very much more competent, 
and also much more mischievous. I have no doubt they 
were good-hearted boys, but they were boys. They found 
that I was a foreordained and predestined victim, and in- 
dustriously proceeded to make life miserable for me. The 
worst feature was that when I finally tried to fight them, I 
discovered that either one singly could not only handle me 
with easy contempt, but 1 Lndle me so as not to hurt me much 
and yet to prevent my doing any damage whatever in return. 



PERSONAL QUALITIES 269 

The experience taught me what probably no amount of 
good advice could have taught me. I made up my mind 
that I must try to learn so that I would not again be put in 
such a helpless position; and having become quickly and bit- 
terly conscious that I did not have the natural prowess to 
hold my own, I decided that I would try to supply its place 
by training. Accordingly, with my father's hearty ap- 
proval, I started to learn to box. I was a painfully slow 
and awkward pupil, and certainly worked two or three 
years before I made any perceptible improvement whr^t- 
ever. . . . 

There were all kinds of things of which I was afraid at first, 
ranging from grizzly bears to ''mean" horses and gun-fighters; 
but by acting as if I was not afraid, I gradually ceased to be 
afraid. Most men can have the same experience if they 
choose. They will first learn to bear themselves well in trials 
which they anticipate, and which they school themselves in 
advance to meet. After a while the habit will grow on them, 
and they will behave well in sudden and unexpected emergen- 
cies which come upon them unawares. 

It is, of course, much pleasanter if one is naturally fearless, 
and I envy and respect the men who are naturally fearless. 
But it is a good thing to remember that the man who does 
not enjoy this advantage can nevertheless stand beside the 
man who does, and can do his duty with the like eflRciency, 
if he chooses to. Of course, he must not let his desire take 
the form merely of a day-dream. Let him dream about 
being a fearless man, and the more he dreams, the better 
he will be, always provided he does his best to realize the 
dream in practice. He can do his part honourably and well, 
provided only he sets fearlessness before himself as an ideal, 
schools himself to think of danger merely as something to be 
faced and overcome, and regards life itself as he should regard 
it — not as something to be thrown away, but as a pawn to be 
promptly hazarded whenever the hazard is warranted by the 
larger interests of the great game in which we are all engaged* 



270 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

As a result of this precautionary care he became 
a man of great athletic powers, not only a skilful 
boxer, an accomplished horseman, and a first-rate 
shot, but an explorer who endured physical priva- 
tions and struggles in mountains, wilderness, and 
jungle, that would have broken down many men 
endowed in the beginning with naturally stronger 
bodies. In my editorial association with him I 
found the same sense of precautionary preparation. 
He never wrote an article without verifying his 
statements of fact, and he invariably submitted the 
articles, when done, to one or more of his colleagues 
for criticism and suggestion. How painstaking he 
was in this respect is illustrated by this incident 
which occurred when he was preparing his auto- 
biography and of which I am reminded by hap- 
pening upon the correspondence about it, while 
going over my papers and letters in preparation 
for this chapter. In July, 191 3, Roosevelt wrote 
me from Sagamore Hill: 

Like the horse-leech's daughter, I come back! In either 
Chapter 10 or Chapter 15 will you insert in an appropriate 
place, the following: 

''The American public rarely appreciates the high quality 
of the work done by some of our diplomats, work, usually 
entirely unnoticed and unrewarded, which redounds to the 
interest and the honour of all of us. The most useful man 
in the entire diplomatic service, during my Presidency and 



PERSONAL QUALITIES 271 

for many years before, was Harry White. When I left the 
Presidency he was Ambassador to France; he was remove(i 
shortly afterward by Mr. Taft, for reasons unconnected with 
the good of the service, and to the serious detriment of the 
service." 



In reply I wrote suggesting that he say ''one 
3f the most useful men . . . was Harry 
White"; and that he omit the last phrase: "and 
to the serious detriment of the service." Referring 
to these suggested changes I said: "I make the 
first, because it will relieve you of the possibility 
3f some stupid persons saying that it proves you 
did not find Robert Bacon useful, and the second, 
because I think the line stricken out is a little of 
an anti-climax." 

Roosevelt, in the meantime, had gone on one of 
bis Western trips but two weeks later he wrote, dat- 
ing his letter ** North of the Grand Canyon, July 29, 

1913": 

Now for the Harry White matter. I wish to adopt most 
3f your suggestion; but to keep the statement that he was the 
best man in the service because that is the truth. How 
w^ould it do to have it read as follows?: 

"The most useful man in the entire diplomatic service, 
during my Presidency and for many years before, was Harry 
VVhite; and I say this having in mind the high quality of 
vork done by such admirable ambassadors and ministers as 
Bacon, Meyer, Straus, O'Brien, Rockhill, and Egan to name 
Duly a few among many. When I left the Presidency, White 



272 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

was Ambassador to France; shortly afterward he was re- 
moved by Mr. Taft, for reasons unconnected with the good 
^^f the service/' 

Aiid that is the way the passage stands in the 
Autobiography except that someone — I do not 
know who — changed "Harry" White to ''Henry" 
White; perhaps it was some punctiHous lady proof- 
reader who felt that it was impolite to call an am- 
bassador in public by so debonair a name as 
Harry! 

The facts which I have already related regarding 
his correspondence with Mr. Bryan while he was 
President, his preparation of his Guildhall speech, 
and his controversy with the Vatican, are illustra- 
tive of the caution and care with which he pre- 
pared himself for any important public act or ut- 
terance. His occasional appearance of impetu- 
osity has often seemed to me to be analogous to 
that of the track athlete who is about to run a 
hundred-yard dash. The spectator sees a half a 
dozen young men at the starting line waiting for 
the pistol before they dart for their goal. They are 
on their toes, quivering with eagerness, sometimes 
making a false start in their overwhelming desire 
to accomplish their task. At the flash of the pistol 
they are off, like lightning. To the ordinary 
observer there is no more striking portrayal o^ 



PERSONAL QUALITIES 273 

rash impulsiveness than is found in the attitudes 
and actions of these swift runners. But the or- 
dinary observer is unaware of the weeks, perhaps 
the months, possibly even the years, of arduous, 
exacting, tedious, accurate training that the athlete 
has subjected himself to before he may even ven- 
ture to try to make a dash in less than eleven 
seconds. 

So it was with Roosevelt, He studied, he read, 
he consulted, he thought, he deliberated, he put 
himself in the hand of trainers so to speak; but 
when the time for action came he was on his toes, 
ready to jump at the word ''Go." It was at these 
times that the general public saw him, not during 
his hours of training. And thus It was that he got 
the reputation, quite an unjust and unfounded 
one, of being impetuous. It is not an insignificant 
thing that while he was accused of proceeding 
rashly along unconstitutional lines as a political 
executive, both during his governorship of the State 
of New York and his Presidency of the United 
States, no legislative act that he advocated and 
signed and no executive act that he performed 
without legislative cooperation has ever, I believe, 
been declared unconstitutional by any court. 

The second quality which I would mention as 
typically characteristic of Roosevelt was his Cour- 



274 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

AGE — not only his moral courage but his pugnacious 
courage. Although he was not rash he apparently- 
had no sense of fear in physical danger. And his 
courage was tested, for his life was placed at great 
risk more than once. In his book describing his 
explorations in South America he tells very simply 
of the physical perils that he and his party went 
through in the canoe voyage down ''The River of 
Doubt" — so simply, in fact, that the very great 
seriousness of the peril almost fails to impress the 
reader. In this adventure he became infected with 
the terrible jungle fever of South America which 
had much to do, I have always believed, with the ill- 
ness that resulted in his untimely death. He nar- 
rates in a quite matter-of-fact way that the infec- 
tion resulted in an abscess on his leg in which the 
surgeon had to place a drainage tube that would 
have kept the average man on his back in a well- 
equipped hospital. But he went on, struggling 
and stumbling over the rocks and through the 
matted underbrush of the jungle. I quote the 
story in his own words from his volume "Through 
the Brazilian Wilderness": 



The men were growing steadily weaker under the endless 
strain of exhausting labour. Kermit was having an attack 
of fever and Lyra and Cherrie had touches of dysentery, but 
all three continued to work. While in the water trying to 



PERSONAL QUALITIES 275 

help with an upset canoe I had by my own clumsiness bruised 
my leg against a boulder; and the resulting infection was 
somewhat bothersome. I now had a sharp attack of fever, 
but thanks to the excellent care of the doctor it was over in 
about forty-eight hours; but Kermit's fever grew worse and 
he too was unable to work for a day or two. We could walk 
over the portages, however. . . . 

Our men were discouraged, weak, and sick; most of them 
already had begun to have fever. Their condition was in- 
evitable after more than a month's uninterrupted work of 
the hardest kind in getting through the long series of rapids 
we had just passed; and a long further delay, accompanieJ 
by wearing labour, would almost certainly have meant that 
the weakest of our party would have begun to die. . . . 
The previous evening Cherrie had killed two monkeys and 
Kermit one, and we all had a few mouth fuls of fresh meat; 
we already had a good soup made out of a turtle Kermit had 
caught. When a number of men doing hard work are 
most of the time on half rations, they grow to take a lively 
interest in any reasonably full meal that does arrive. . . . 

The wearing work under the unhealthy conditions was 
beginning to tell on everyone. Half of the Camarads had 
been down with fever and were much weaker; only a few of 
them retained their original physical and moral strength. 
Cherrie and Kermit had recovered; but both Kermit and 
Lyra had bad sores on their legs from the bruises received 
in the water work. I was in worse shape. The after ef- 
fects of the fever still hung on and the leg which had been 
hurt while working in the rapids had taken a turn for the 
bad and had developed into an abscess. The good doctor, 
to whose unwearied care and kindness I owe much, had cut 
it open and inserted a drainage tube; an added charm being 
given the operation and the subsequent dressings by the en- 
thusiasm with which the piums and boroshudas, two species 
of stinging flies, took part therein. I could hardly hobble 
and was p.'etty well laid up. But "there aren't any 'Stop, 



276 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

conductor!' while a battery's changing ground." No one 
has any business to go on such a trip as ours unless he will 
refuse to jeopardize the welfare of his associates by any delay 
caused by a weakness or ailment of his. It is his duty to rro 
forward, if necessary on all fours, unr?l he drops. 



It is true that Roosevelt did not jeopardize the 
welfare of his associates, that he got out safely, 
and that he had five years more of active and useful 
life, but he told me once on his return that at the 
climax of this experience he seriously considered, 
not from despondency but from a sense of moral 
duty, whether he ought not to end his life then and 
there in order to save his companions — who were 
being delayed by his disability — from the danger of 
death by starvation. 

When an assassin shot him in Milwaukee during 
the Progressive campaign, making a wound that 
would have laid many a man low, he insisted upon 
going to the hall and completing the speech that he 
was engaged to make. He said: *'It may be the 
last message that I shall ever be able to utter." 

Roosevelt had just entered an automobile at 
the doorway of the Gilpatrick Hotel in Milwaukee 
on his way to make a political address at the 
Auditorium of that city about the middle of 
October, 191 2. He was standing up in the car 
when the assassin drew a revolver and fired point 



PERSONAL QUALITIES 277 

blank. The assassin was immediately overpowered. 
Roosevelt's first thought was to save his assailant 
from bodily injury, for when the man Schrank was 
brought before him for identification the only re- 
proach he uttered was: "Don't hurt the poor crea- 
ture." Every effort was made to induce Mr. 
Roosevelt to receive immediate medical attention, 
but he refused. After his speech, which because 
of the circumstances of its delivery is unique in 
the history of oratory, he was taken to the hospital 
first in Milwaukee and then in Chicago and X-ray 
photographs showed that the bullet struck an 
inch to the right and an inch below the right 
nipple, fractured the fourth rib, happily did 
not puncture the lung cavity but ranged upward 
and inward four inches in the chest wall. 

About a week later he was removed to his home 
at Oyster Bay and I saw him there very soon after 
his arrival. He was in bed, and there were still 
signs of blood showing on the bandages which his 
wound required. How, under the circumstances, 
a mortal man could have kept on his feet and 
spoken for an hour, it is almost impossible to con- 
ceive. He began his speech in Milwaukee in this 
way: 

Friends, I shall have to ask you to be as quiet as possible. 
I do not know whether you fully understand that I have been 



278 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

sliot, but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose [the 
slang term describing a member of the Progressive party, a 
term adopted as a badge of honour by the Progressives them- 
selves]. But, fortunately I had my manuscript [holding up 
the manuscript and showing the audience where the bullet 
liad gone through], so you see I was going to make a long 
speech ! And, friends, the hole in it is where the bullet went 
through, and it probably saved the bullet from going into my 
heart. The bullet is in me now so that I cannot make a very 
long speech. But I will try my best. . . . 

First of all, I want to say this about myself. I have alto- 
gether too many important things to think of to pay any 
heed or to feel any concern over my own death. ... I 
want you to understand that I am ahead of the game any- 
way. No man has had a happier life'than I have had, a 
"happier life in every way. ... I am not speaking for 
myself at all — I give you my word, I do not care a rap about 
\)eing shot, not a rap. I have had a good many experiences 
In my time, and this is only one of them. What I do care 
for is my country. I wish I were able to impress upon our 
people the duty to feel strongly, but to speak truthfully of 
their opponents. ... I say now that I have never said 
on the stump one word against any opponent that I could not 
substantiate . . . nothing that, looking back, I would 
not say again. 



After ]V[r. Roosevelt had concluded that portion 
of his speech in which he referred to his injury, he 
turned to the concrete issues of the campaign, and 
spoke as if he had been deHvering one of those ad- 
dresses which were a matter of daily routine with 
him. After he had been speaking for some time 
he turned to the physician who, as a precautionary 



PERSONAL QUALITIES 279 

measure was sitting close by him, and said, ''How 
long have I been speaking?" ''Three quarters of 
an hour," replied the doctor, glancing at his watch. 
"Well," said Mr. Roosevelt with a smile, "I will 
talk for a quarter of an hour more." Actually he 
spoke altogether for nearly an hour and a half. 

After he recovered, a group of us were discussing 
the event at one of our editorial luncheons. Some- 
one reported that a newspaper despatch had stated 
that Roosevelt's motive in insisting upon keeping 
his engagement to speak was the desire to relieve 
his friends, especially the Progressives all over the 
country, from the anxiety of supposing that he 
was dangerously injured. Roosevelt laughed: 

"That would certainly have been very consid- 
erate,*' was his comment, "but I must admit that 
it never occurred to me. I suppose my real feeling 
was an instinctive desire not to give up. Pioneers, 
soldiers, boxers, and men of that type — and I have 
had some of the experience of all three in my life — 
are trained not to give way under attack, not 
to let the other fellow for a minute think you are 
down and out." In other words, in the phrase 
of to-day, he wanted to " carry on." 

The Milwaukee speech was a great and memor- 
able physical feat. Nothing but the most perfect 
self-control and the highest kind of physical cour- 



28o IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

age could have carried any man through it. But 
Roosevelt's moral courage was as striking as his 
physical courage. 

Of this the Progressive campaign is perhaps a 
sufficient example. He sacrificed friendships and 
associations that were very dear to him. But the 
loss of them did not deter him from pursuing a 
course that seemed to him to be just and right. 
He also sacrificed the personal prestige which every 
man who has won it likes to preserve, and subjected 
himself to an extraordinary amount of contumely 
and abuse. The Philadelphia North American, 
on October lo, 191 2, four days before Roosevelt 
was shot, published the following list of epithets 
applied to Roosevelt by a certain American news- 
paper of the opposition in the issues of a single 
month : 



"Shrieks his hostility"; ''ridiculous"; "contemptible"; 
"his antics"; "gnashing his teeth"; "eager to use fraud"; 
"unparalleled viciousness and dishonesty"; "a dangerous 
demagogue"; "insensate ambition"; "charlatanism"; "plain 
aberration"; "bad faith"; "unworthy methods"; "shocking 
demagogism"; "baseless and dangerous appeals"; "no 
scruples"; "revolutionary and subversive"; "horrible glib- 
ness"; "indecent performance"; "Aaron Burr"; "shame- 
less"; "crazy socialistic scheme"; "blatant insincerity"; 
"hypocritical and dangerous"; "howling mobocracy"; 
^'shabby tactics"; "damning proof of hypocrisy"; "hollow 
and untrustworthy"; "duplicity"; "shrewd political trick- 



PERSONAL QUALITIES 281 

ery"; "utter untrustworthiness"; "dangerous and self- 
seeking autocrat''; "unblushing effrontery"; "squalid ban- 
dying of words"; "no respect for truth." 

One of the results of the Progressive campaign 
was a libel suit which at the time greatly interested 
the entire country as a cause celehre. In October, 
191 2, a weekly newspaper of Michigan, called Iron 
Ore^ published a scurrilous article which, after 
accusing Roosevelt of political and personal black- 
guardism, said: ''He gets drunk, too, and that not 
infrequently, and all his intimates know about it." 

Mr. Roosevelt instantly brought action for libel 
against the editor and proprietor of this paper and 
the case was tried in Marquette, Mich., during 
the week of May 26-31, 1913. 

It has sometim.es been asked why Roosevelt 
should have sued a small weekly publication in 
Michigan. It was because the statement as to his 
drunkenness, although a matter of rumour and 
gossip, was published in this instance for the first 
time by a responsible man of sufficient means to 
make the libel suit really effective. A large party 
of friends and supporters accompanied Mr. Roose- 
velt to Marquette, glad to go as witnesses in his 
behalf. This group of friends literally invaded the 
Httle town of Marquette, which is beautifully situ- 
ated on the shore of Lake Superior, and were 



282 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

received with cordiality and hospitality by Roose- 
velt's many friends in the community. The com- 
pany included a large number of distinguished 
persons. 

It is, I believe, a principle of trials for libel in 
this country that the plaintiff may make certain 
pleadings that will compel the defendant to open the 
case and prove his statement if he can do so. 
The plaintiff may then submit the case for judicial 
decision without introducing any evidence if the de- 
fendant fails to make good, thus avoiding what is 
sometimes an awkward inquiry into his, the plain- 
tiff's, private life. This was not Roosevelt's method. 
He wished to go on record himself and have his 
friends on record in telling franklyall the facts about 
his alleged use of intoxicating beverages. He him- 
self was the first witness and related with delightful 
frankness what his custom was as to the use of wine 
and stated that he not only did not use but dis- 
liked whisky, brandy, and beer. His testimony 
which showed his rather unusual abstention from 
alcoholic beverages was confirmed by his Cabinet 
associates, by his physician, and by his personal 
friends. For example. Dr. Alexander Lambert, 
his family physician, testified that he had known 
Roosevelt for twenty-two years; had been in and 
out of his household at all hours of the day and 



PERSONAL QUALITIES 283 

night; had been off with him on hunting trips; 
attributed his remarkable recovery from the as- 
sassin's bullet in Milwaukee "to his splendid, un- 
poisoned physique"; and declared that he '*was an 
exceedingly temperate man, and an unusually 
abstemious one." This was the view of a great 
array of witnesses, whose accounts of Roosevelt 
really amounted to a delightful kind of biography 
of him. 

When Roosevelt's lawyers rested their case the 
defendant actually threw up his hands. He could 
produce no testimony whatever, except hear-say 
evidence. In exculpation of his act he said that 
his article was written because of his, the defend- 
ant's, opposition to Roosevelt's candidacy; that 
his statement of Mr. Roosevelt's drinking to ex- 
cess was based upon common gossip; and that he 
now in open court withdrew the charge. As a 
matter of fact, while this capitulation was expressed 
in legal terms it was evident, not only to the spec- 
tators but to the Court, that the defendant who 
had made the libellous accusation had not a leg 
to stand on. 

Before the presiding Justice charged the jury 
Mr. Roosevelt addressed the Court as follows: 

Your Honor, in view of the statement of the defendant, 
I ask the Court to instruct the jury that I desire only nomi- 



284 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

nal damages. I did not go into this suit for money; I did 
not go into it for any vindictive purpose. I went into it. 
and as the Court has said, I made my reputation an issi v 
hecause I wish once for all during my lifetime thoroughly 
and comprehensively to deal with these slanders so that 
never again will it be possible for any man in good faith to 
repeat them. I have achieved my purpose, and I am con- 
tent. 

Whereupon the presiding Justice, Judge Flanni- 
gan, of the Circuit Court for the County of Mar- 
quette, State of Michigan, charged the jury in 
these words: 

The injury to the reputation and feelings of the plaintiff 
which naturally, proximately, and necessarily followed upon 
the false publication, would warrant a verdict in the plain- 
tiff's favour in a substantial amount, and would sustain a 
verdict in any sum up to the amount claimed in the plain- 
tiff's declaration, which is ten thousand dollars. 

But, as the Court is advised by the plaintiff, the object 
of the plaintiff in bringing and prosecuting this action being 
the vindication of his good name and reputation, and not the 
recovery of a money judgment; and he having in open 
court freely waived his right to the assessment of his actual 
damages, it only remains for the Court to direct a verdict 
in his favour for nominal damages, which, under the law of 
Michigan, is the sum of six cents. 

You are, therefore, gentlemen, directed to render a verdict 
in favour of the plaintiff for that amount. 

It should be added as a matter of record that Mr. 
Roosevelt's case was entrusted to the firm of 
Messrs. Bowers and Sands of New York City who 



PERSONAL QUALITIES 285 

after the trial refused to accept any fee whatsoever 
on the ground that they believed they were per- 
forming a pubhc service in defending an ex-Presi- 
dent from slander. 

It required moral courage on the part of Roose- 
velt to subject his private life to the kind of inter- 
rogatory and analytical searching that takes place 
in a libel suit, and his request to the Court that 
the defendant, whose original publication had been 
unusually vindictive and scurrilous, should be re- 
lieved of the final burden of his unjust act when 
he virtually apologized for it, displays the warm- 
hearted magnanimity of Roosevelt toward a van- 
quished enemy — one of his marked characteris- 
tics. 

No man that I have known liked personal ap- 
proval more than Roosevelt. He had a kind of 
childhke responsiveness to commendation and 
praise. He did not wear his heart on his sleeve, 
but I think he was really hurt when those to whom 
he was attached were displeased with him. There 
are people who thought he was thick-skinned. On 
the contrary, he was highly sensitive; by this 1 
do not mean that he ever showed pique or irrita- 
tion or resentment or hysterical sorrow which are 
the things that come to mind when we speak of a 
''sensitive girl"; I mean sensitive in the exact use 



286 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

of the word — quick to receive impressions. But 
if this sensitiveness to mental or spiritual sensa- 
tions pained him he rarely if ever gave any sign, 
except by depending more and more upon the devo-; 
tion and affection of those who liked and trusted 
him. He was, as he says in his Milwaukee speech, 
a happy man. I never knew him to be ''blue" 
or despondent or to complain of disappointments 
or an adverse fate. His courage was buoyant and 
unshaken to the last. 

The third of Roosevelt's qualities which I wish 
to make note of — the quality that, to me, was the 
most appealing and engaging in his personality and 
that I most naturally and instinctively think of 
ivhen I recall him to mind — ^was his Sense of 
Humour. 

A sense of humour is not merely an agreeable and 
pleasing social virtue of an ephemeral and super- 
ficial kind; it is a fundamental virtue. A man who 
possesses a sense of humour can be neither vain, 
nor conceited, nor a prig, nor a pedant. For if 
he falls into any of these errors, which are so apt to 
entrap men of great reputation who receive much 
public adulation, his sense of humour comes to the 
rescue and punctures the bubble of self-glorifica- 
tion. 

One of the most beautiful and spiritual of all the 



PERSONAL QUALITIES 287 

saints in the calendar of the Church, St. Francis 
of Assisi, so appreciated the virtue of a sense of 
humour that he urged its cultivation, in one of the 
precepts of the Rule of his Brotherhood. Sabatier, 
in his delightful ''Life of St. Francis," quotes this 
precept and remarks: "In the history of the early 
Franciscan missions there are bursts of laughter 
which ring out high and clear." 

The precept, as Sabatier gives it, reads as follows: 

Caveant fratres quod non ostendant se tristes extrinsecus 
nubilosos et hypocritas; sed ostendant se gaudentes in Dom- 
ine, hilares et convenientes gratiosos. 

As this Latin was the colloquial language of the 
mediaeval Church, I venture to translate it into 
our own colloquial vernacular: 

Let the brothers take care not to appear long-faced, 
gloomy or over-pious; but let them be joyous about their 
faith in God, laughing and good mixers. 

Roosevelt certainly was joyous in his faith that 
there is a power that makes for righteousness in 
the universe and he was convenienter gratiosus, a 
good mixer in the best sense of the phrase. The 
characteristic falsetto intonation of his voice when 
he felt the humour of what he was saying was inde- 
scribably infectious in its cheerfulness. 



288 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

This sense of humour crops out in much of 
Roosevelt's writing. It is especially to be found 
in certain chapters of his Autobiography and in 
the "Rough Riders/' Take this example from 
the chapter entitled "The Vigour of Life" in the 
Autobiography. It is permissible, now that both 
men have gone on, to say that the "prize-fighting 
friend" about whom Mr. Roosevelt relates the 
incident was John L. Sullivan. 

On one occasion one of my prize-fighting friends called on 
nie at the White House, on business. He explained that he 
wished to see me alone, sat down opposite me, and put a very 
expensive cigar on the desk, saying: "Have a cigar." n 
thanked him and said I did not smoke, to which he responded : 
'' Put it in your pocket." This I accordingly did. 

Having thus shown, at the outset, the necessary formal 
courtesy, my visitor, an old and valued friend, proceeded to 
explain that a nephew of his had enlisted in the Marine Corps, 
had been absent without leave, and was threatened with dis- 
honourable discharge on the ground of desertion. My visi- 
tor, a good citizen and a patriotic American, was stung to the 
quick at the thought of such an incident occurring In his fam- 
ily, and he explained to me that it must not occur — that 
there must not be the disgrace to the family — although he 
would be delighted to have the offender "handled rough" 
to teach him a needed lesson. He added that he wished I 
would take him and handle him myself, for he knew that I 
would see that he "got all that was coming to him." 

Then a lock of pathos cam.e into his eyes, and he explained : 
"That boy I just cannot understand. He was my sister's 
favourite son, and I always took a special Interest in him my 
self I did my best to bring him up the way he ought to go- 



PERSONAL QUALITIES 289 

But there was just nothing to be done with him. His tastes 
were naturally low. He took to music!" 

What form this debasing taste for music assumed I did not 
inquire; and I was able to grant my friend's wish. 



Or this, from Roosevelt's autobiographic account 
of his experiences as Police Commissioner at a time 
when he was carrying on a crusade against illegal 
liquor selling: 



All kinds of incidents occurred in connection with this 
crusade. One of them introduced me to a friend who re- 
mains a friend yet. His name was Edward J. Bourke. He 
was one of the men who entered the police force through our 
examinations shortly after I took office. I had summoned 
twenty or thirty of the successful applicants to let me look 
them over; and as I walked into the hall, one of them, a well- 
set-up iTian, called out sharply to the others: "Gangway!" — 
making them move to one side. I found he had served in 
the United States navy. The incident was sufficient to 
make me keep him in mind. 

A month later I was notified by a police reporter, a very 
good fellow, that Bourke was in difficulties, and that he 
thought I had better look into the matter myself, as Bourke 
was being accused by certain very influential men of grave 
misconduct in an arrest he had made the night before. Ac- 
cordingly, I took the matter up personally. I found that on 
the new patrolman's beat the preceding night — a new beat — 
there was a big saloon run by a man of great influence in 
political circles known as "King" Calahan. After midnight 
the saloon was still running in full blast, and Bourke, step- 
ping inside, told Calahan to close up. It was at the time filled 
with "friends of personal liberty." as Governor Hill used at 



290 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

that time, in moments of pathos, to term everybody who re- 
garded as tyranny any restriction on the sale of hquor. 
Calahan's saloon had never before in its history been closed, 
and to have a green cop tell him to close it seemed to him so 
incredible that he regarded it merely as a bad jest. 

On his next round Bourke stepped in and repeated the 
order. Calahan felt that the jest had gone too far, and, by 
way of protest, knocked Bourke down. This was an error 
of judgment on his part, for w^hen Bourke arose he knocked 
Calahan down. The two then grappled and fell on the floor, 
while the "friends of personal liberty" danced around the 
hght and endeavoured to stamp on everything they thought 
wasn't Calahan. However, Bourke, though pretty roughly 
handled, got his man and shut the saloon. When he ap- 
peared against the lawbreaker in court next day, he found 
the court-room crowded wath influential Tammany Hal! 
politicians, backed by one or tw^o Republican leaders of the 
same type; for Calahan was a baron of the underworld, and 
both his feudal superiors and his feudal inferiors gathered to 
the rescue. His backers in court included a Congressman 
and a State Senator, and so deep-rooted was the police belief 
in "pull" that his ow^n superiors had turned against Bourke 
and were preparing to sacrifice him. 

Just at this time I acted on the mformation given me by 
my newspaper friend by starting in person for the court. 
The knowledge, that I knew what was going on, thrt^I 
meant what I said, and that I intended to make the affair 
personal, was all that was necessary. Before I reached the 
court all effort to defend Calahan had promptly ceased, 
and Bourke had come forth triumphant. I immediately 
promoted him to roundsman. He is a captain now. He has 
been on the force ever since, save that when the Spanisl^ 
War came he obtained a holiday without pay for six months 
and reentered the navy, serving as gun captain in one of the 
gunboats, and doing his work, as was to be expected, in first- 
rate fashion, especially when under fire. 



PERSONAL QUALITIES 291 

Roosevelt greatly rejoiced in his experience with 
the Rough Riders — not only in the serious and 
soldierly part of it but in the human and humorous 
part, as will be seen from this allusion to some of 
the characters of the regiment : 



The men speedily gave one another nicknames, largely 
conferred in a spirit of derision, their basis lying In contrast. 
A brave but fastidious member of a well-known Eastern 
club who was serving In the ranks was christened *' Tough 
Ike"; and his bunkle, the man who shared his shelter-tent, 
who was a decidedly rough cow-puncher, gradually acquired 
the name of "The Dude." One unlucky and simple-minded 
cow-puncher, who had never been east of the great plains in 
his life, unwarily boasted that he had an aunt In New York, 
and ever afterward went by the name of "Metropolitan Bill." 
A huge red-headed Irishman was named "Sheeny Solomon." 
A young Jew who developed Into one of the best fighters in 
the regiment accepted, with entire equanimity, the name of 
"Pork-chop." We had quite a number of professional 
gamblers, who, I am bound to say, usually made good soldiers. 
One, who was almost abnormally quiet and gentle, was called 
"Hell Roarer"; while another, who In point of language and 
deportment was his exact antithesis, was christened "Prayer- 
ful James." 



One of the delightful qualities of his humour 
was that he enjoyed a joke at his own expense quite 
as much as one based on an oddity or quirk in some- 
one else. Here is an example from the "Rough 
Riders": 



292 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

There was a great deal of paper work to be done; but as I 
still had charge of the brigade only a little of it fell on my 
shoulders. Of this I was sincerely glad, for I knew as little 
of the paper work as my men had originally known of drill. 
We had all of us learned how to fight and march; but the 
exact limits of our rights and duties in other respects were not 
very clearly defined in our minds; and as for myself, as I 
had not had the time to learn exactly what they were, I had 
assumed a large authority in giving rewards and punishments. 
In particular I had looked on court-martials much as Peter 
Bell looked on primroses — they were court-martials and 
nothing more, whether resting on the authority of a lieuten- 
ant-colonel or of a major-general. The mustering-out officer, 
a thorough soldier, found to his horror that I had used the 
widest discretion both in imposing heavy sentences which I 
had no power to impose on men who shirked their duties, 
and, where men atoned for misconduct by marked gallantry, 
in blandly remitting sentences approved by my chief of divi- 
sion. However, I had done substantial — even though some- 
what rude and irregular — ^justice, and no harm could result, 
as w^e were just about to be mustered out. 



Another instance of his enjoyment of chaffing 
himself that I often like to think of occurred in the 
early days of my editorial association with him. 
We used to meet at a weekly round-table confer- 
ence in which Roosevelt regularly took part. 
These meetings were generally held on Mondays 
at eleven o'clock in the forenoon. 

One Monday morning he went to Brooklyn with 
some friends to inspect some model tenement 
houses in that borough, and did not reach the con- 



PERSONAL QUALITIES 293 

ference until between twelve and one. When he 
came in he was full of his experience and began to 
tell us about it. He had gone quietly and wished 
to avoid any pubhcity, ''But," said he, ''for some 
reason or other which I do not quite understand, 
the people recognized me, especially the children, 
and a crowd of the latter gathered around me." 

We all smiled, for it should be explained that his 
characteristic feature, which was always seized 
upon by the newspaper cartoonists, was a mouth- 
ful of unusually fine and white teeth, which he un- 
consciously displayed whenever he laughed or 
talked emphatically. 

Noticing the smiles on our faces he at once 
added; ^'Yes, I suppose there is something dis- 
tinctive in my physiognomy. I remember that 
s !^en I was running for the vice-Presidency I had 
to speak in a Western town where the crowd in the 
hall was so dense that the officers in charge had 
great difficulty in making a way for me througli 
the packed audience to get to the stage where I 
was to speak. Mr. Dooley's comment was [Mr. 
Dooley as every contemporary American knows 
is the newspaper pseudonym of one of our most 
delightful and accomplished humourists]: 'And 
thin along came Teddy Rosenfeld and bit his way 
to the platform!'" 



294 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Roosevelt recalled this genial caricature with 
evident gusto. 

In June, 1910, the Roosevelt party arrived in 
London very early in the morning, having travelled 
from Berlin during the night by the Flushing- 
Queensborough route. Mr. Roosevelt went to 
Dorchester House where he was the guest of Am- 
bassador Whitelaw Reid, while I took up my quar- 
ters in a near-by hotel. Immediately after break- 
fast and after having removed some of the stain 
of travel, I went round to Dorchester House and 
by ten or eleven o'clock was engaged with Colonel 
Roosevelt over a great pile of accumulated mail, 
in a sitting room or *' study" which Mr. Reid had 
placed at his disposal. It was a good deal of a task 
and one that was usually irksome to Mr. Roosevelt, 
although he performed it faithfully. A knock at 
the half-open door, accompanied by laboured 
breathing, showed that somebody was there in a 
state of suppressed excitement. I said ''Come in," 
when one of the liveried, silk-stockinged footmen, 
— a typical before-the-war English flunky — entered 
and announced in an evidently awe-struck voice^ 
for kings were not in the habit of calling on pri- 
vate citizens at ten o'clock in the morning: "The 
King of is below, sir." 



PERSONAL QUALITIES 295 

Mr. Roosevelt, of course, had to go down, not 
only because it was a king, but because it was a 
monarch (not the Kaiser, let me hasten to add!) 
for whom he had formed a real respect and 
friendship during his journey in northern Eu- 
rope. Nevertheless, as the Colonel rose he threw 
down his pen, with a mixture of annoyance (at being 
interrupted) and amusement, and exclaimed: ''Con- 
found these kings; will they never leave me alone !" 

Another royal or semi-royal anecdote comes to 
my mind. At Stockholm Mr. Roosevelt was a 
guest in the palace, a fine and spacious edifice of 
unusually large and impressive dimensions, where 
the hospitality extended to the party was of the 
most genuine and delightful kind. The suite of 
apartments which had been placed at the disposal 
of Mr. Roosevelt and his family was elaborate, 
and I had assigned to me on another floor a bed- 
room and a sitting room with a man-servant to 
attend to my wants. My bath was brought in 
each morning in a portable tub after the old-time 
European fashion, but while every comfort was 
provided, the palace, so far as I could find, lacked 
the modern plumbing upon which Americans are so 
accustomed to depend. When we left Stockholm 
by train, which had been equipped with a private 
saloon carriage and private dining car for Mr. 



296 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Roosevelt by his royal host, I asked him whether 
he had discovered any modern plumbing in the 
palace. He replied, with a quizzical look: **No; I 
don't like living in these palaces because you can't 
ring your bell and complain of your room!" 

During the journey through Europe the English 
king, Edward VII, had died, and Mr. Roosevelt 
was appointed by Mr. Taft as special ambassador 
to the funeral. One of the things he had to do 
while in London was to attend the elaborate public 
ceremonies of this funeral. Captain (now Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel) Bentley Mott, then our Military 
Attache at Paris, was assigned to Mr. Roosevelt 
as his personal attache in the performance of his 
ambassadorial duties. The Earl of Dundonald 
and Commander Cunninghame-Graham were as- 
signed by the King to perform for Mr. Roosevelt 
the functions of what I suppose would be called in 
the case of royal personages, "Gentlemen in wait- 
ing." The arrangements had to be made by these 
three gentlemen for Mr. Roosevelt's part in the 
solemn and splendid procession which proceeded 
through vast crowds from Buckingham Palace to 
Windsor. As Secretary to Mr. Roosevelt I was 
called into the conference. Captain Mott felt that 
Colonel Roosevelt should ride a horse, dressed in 
the conventional long riding trousers, frock coat, 



PERSONAL QUALITIES 297 

and high hat. The Earl of Dundonald and Com- 
mander Cunninghame-Graham courteously agreed 
that this was most desirable, but regretted that the 
Earl of Norfolk, the prerogative of whose family 
was to have charge of all English coronations and 
royal funerals, was insistent that Mr. Roosevelt 
should wear '* ambassadorial dress'' — this being, 
according to American precedent, a swallow-tail 
evening suit. 

Finally, Captain Mott insisted that Colonel 
Roosevelt should be called into the conference. 
He came, the matter was laid before him, and he 
said: "Why, Mott, I appreciate your thoughtful- 
ness, but I am here as an ambassador not to do 
what I like but what the English people like as the 
contribution of my country to the respect which 
the world is paying to the memory of the King. If 
the English people want me to, Til wear a pink coat 
and green-striped trousers!" 

The result was that he did wear American eve- 
ning dress and rode in the procession in a carriage 
with M. Pichon, the French Ambassador, to the 
funeral, these two, I believe, being the only foreign 
representatives who were "commoners." Mr. 
Roosevelt told me that during the long drive he had 
all he could do to appease M. Pichon, because ac- 
cording to the exacting rules of precedence, their 



298 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELl 

carriage had been placed after that of the King of 
Siam. This question of precedence gave Roose- 
velt no end of amusement. He saw its necessity, 
for all social conventions are based on some kind of 
necessity, but its extreme rigour struck him, as 
it does every American I suppose, as sometimes 
ludicrous. 

He told me that at the funeral banquet given 
to the foreign representatives in Buckingham Pal- 
ace the evening before the procession and cere- 
monies at Windsor — a dinner which he somewhat 
disrespectfully referred to as "the wake" — the 
Kaiser told him an anecdote of precedence con- 
nected with the funeral, which indicates that the 
Kaiser himself was capable of perceiving the arti- 
ficiality of certain monarchical customs. It seems 
that two royal personages of eastern Europe — I 
think one was from a Balkan kingdom and the 
other from an Austrian principality — met with their 
private cars or saloon carriages at Vienna to take 
the Orient Express for Paris and London. They 
quarrelled as to whose rank entitled him to be first 
on the train, but the aide-de-camp, let us say of the 
Balkan personage, was clever enough to get his 
master's car coupled directly on the engine. The 
Austrian, therefore, had, willynilly, to take second 
place. Then came the regular dining car of the 



PERSONAL QUALITIES 299 

train. When dinner was served the Balkan High- 
ness sent his aide into the private car of the Aus- 
trian Highness with his compliments and might 
he pass through to the dining car. No, he might 
not. So he had to wait until the train came to a 
station, get out, walk around his rival's car into 
the dining car, eat his dinner, stay there until an- 
other station was reached, and then walk around 
his rival's car again into his own. As the Orient 
Express makes very long non-stop runs it may 
easily be imagined that although the Balkan celeb- 
rity got the first place on the train it was not by 
any means the most comfortable. This incident 
Roosevelt recounted with the greatest glee. 

I have already referred to the fact that in the 
summer of 19 14, just before the European war broke 
out, I returned from England, with a party of 
friends on the steamship Imperatoi\ in company 
with Roosevelt. We had been over to play golf; 
he had been to England to lecture before the Royal 
Geographical Society. He was sitting with us one 
afternoon in the smoking room, although he did 
not smoke himself, and fell to talking on one of his 
favourite topics — Americanism. He was denounc- 
mg a certain man in Boston who during the Span- 
ish War, although purporting to be an American, 
endeavoured to raise money to help Spain build a 



300 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

battleship. The enormity of this offence grew 
upon Roosevelt as he talked and finally he raised 
his clenched fist in the air and almost at a loss foi 
words, exclaimed, **Such a man as that should be 
— should be — should be^ — hanged, drawn, and 
quartered!" 

One of the group, a great admirer and political 
follower of Roosevelt who had met him personally, 
I believe, for the first time on this voyage, leaned 
forward and said with a chuckle: ^'At least, Colo 
nel!" Quick as a flash the Colonel turned, toot 
his hand, and said: '*I am delighted to meet a man, 
Mr. Erickson, who thinks my language is too mod- 
erate!" He did not go on with his denunciation. 

Two years afterward Mr. Erickson, who had 
become actively interested in the formation of the 
Roosevelt League which was urging the nomina- 
tion of Roosevelt for the Presidency of 1916, went 
to the office of the Colonel, who was then associ- 
ated with the Metropolitan Magazine, to consult 
him about some campaign matters. He sent in 
his card, and when he entered the Colonel's room 
he remarked that, although probably the Colonel 
did not remember him, he had had the pleasure of 
crossing with him on the Imperator two years 
before. "Not remember you!" exclaimed Mr. 
Roosevelt, "I most certainly do — and most pleas- 



PERSONAL QUALITIES 301 

antly. You are the man who thinks my language 
is too moderate V 

These rambUng and detached stories, I am 
afraid, give a very inadequate impression of what 
I think was the most lovable of Roosevelt's quali- 
ties. I am not sure but that it was the most im- 
portant of his qualities. He could be stern; he 
could be severe; he was occasionally biting al- 
though never bitter; he had a certain touch of bull- 
dog pugnacity; but underlying it all was a reser- 
voir of humour, not a careless or indifferent hu- 
mour, not a mere jocosity, but humour which has 
its source in a spirit of sympathetic and joyous 
understanding of men and things — a spirit of 
which Emerson said in a Eulogy of Sir Walter 
Scott before the Massachusetts Historical Society: 
"What an ornament and safeguard is humour! 
Far better than wit for a poet and writer. It is a 
genius itself, and so defends from the insani- 
ties/' 

The fourth notable quality in Roosevelt's person- 
aHty that impressed me was his Gentleness. 
Early in his presidential career he uttered one of 
those epigrammatic phrases for which he has become 
famous: "Speak softly, but carry a big stick." 

The big-stick half of this phrase caught the pub- 
He fancy and many people, forgetting that he put 



302 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

''speaking softly" first, pictured him as a kind of 
glorified Irishman carrying a shillalah in a uni- 
versal Donnybrook Fair and joyously hitting 
every head he saw. Those who knew him best 
knew that this was a totally false conception — 
that one of his pronounced characteristics was a 
spirit of gentle consideration for others. 

A man's general attitude toward his fellow beings 
can be pretty well determined if you can find out 
what he thinks of children and how he treats them. 
What Roosevelt thought of children is expressed 
In this paragraph from his Autobiography: 



There are many kinds of success in life worth having. It is 
exceedingly interesting and attractive to be a successful 
business man, or railroad man, or farmer, or a successful 
lawyer, or doctor, or a writer, or a president, or a ranchman, 
or the colonel of a fighting regiment, or to kill grizzly bears 
and lions. But for unflagging Interest and enjoyment, a 
household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly 
makes all other forms of success and achievement lose their 
importance by comparison. 



I am inclined to think that Roosevelt was gener- 
ally regarded by the public as preeminently a man's 
man. He was so much in the public mind as a 
bear killer, a lion hunter, a jungle explorer, a Rough 
Rider, a '* trust buster," and a fighter of male- 
factors that many people are astonished when 



PERSONAL QUALITIES 303 

they are told that he was also a children's man. 
Nobody can detect a counterfeit child lover as 
quickly as a child itself. Normal children respect 
and admire their superiors, especially in physical 
prowess, without regard to age; but they despise 
and resent patronage. The man who assumes a 
patronizing air toward children is very soon avoided 
by them, but with magnetic rapidity they cluster 
round a man who understands them, who sym- 
pathizes with them — a very different thing by 
the way from sentimentalizing over them — and 
who can do things with them. This was the way 
Roosevelt treated children, and the result was that 
they often followed him as if he had been a modern 
Pied Piper of Hamelin. It is easy to imagine the 
atmosphere in which his own children were brought 
up in the family homestead. Sagamore Hill, at 
Oyster Bay. They swam, rowed, went barefoot, 
or camped in the woods or on the beach of Long 
Island Sound. They learned to shoot — for there 
was a rifle-range at Sagamore Hill. They made pets 
of the various animals on the home farm in the 
summer, and they coasted and skated in the 
winter. In this bringing up of the children in the 
vigour of outdoor life Mrs. Roosevelt was an active 
partner, as will be seen by referring to another 
passage in the colonel's Autobiography; 



304 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

When their mother and I returned from a row, we would 
often see the children waiting for us, running like sand-spiders 
along the beach. They always liked to swim in company 
with a grown-up of buoyant temperament and inventive 
mind, and the float offered limitless opportunities for enjoy- 
ment while bathing. 

All dutiful parents know the game of stage-coach. Each 
child is given a name, such as the whip, the nigh-leader, the 
ofF-wheeler, the old-lady passenger, and, under penalty of 
paying a forfeit, must get up and turn round when the grown- 
up, who is improvising a thrilling story, mentions that par- 
ticular object; and when the word "stage-coach" is men- 
tioned, everybody has to get up and turn round. Well, we 
used to play stage-coach on the float while in swimming, and 
instead of tamely getting up and turning round, the child 
whose turn it was had to plunge overboard. When I men- 
tioned "stage-coach," the water fairly foamed with vigorously 
kicking little legs; and then there was always a moment of 
interest while I counted, so as to be sure that the number of 
heads that came up corresponded with the number of chil- 
dren who had gone down. 



I am puzzled to know whether Roosevelt's 
attitude toward his youngest boy, Quentin, whose 
body lies in his soldier's grave in France, should be 
put under the head of courage or gentleness. The 
father who has the most gentle love for his child 
really wants that child to make the most of its 
life, not merely to vegetate, protected from every 
kind of danger, trial, or obstacle. Quentin's death 
was a blow to Roosevelt, but I think he never re- 
gretted the encouragement and support which he 



PERSONAL QUALITIES 305 

gave his youngest son in making the Great Adven- 
ture. Quentin, then nineteen years old, was com- 
pleting his sophomore year in Harvard, When 
this country declared war on Germany he tele- 
graphed his mother that he was leaving college 
to come to New York to enlist. During a visit 
at Sagamore Hill in the summer of 19 17, after 
Quentin had gone to the French front, I asked Mr. 
and Mrs. Roosevelt whether they did not feel 
it to be a special hardship that, at so early an age, 
Quentin should have to give up his education and 
many of his associations at Harvard which he 
could never renew even if the war left him un- 
scathed. They both replied that they were par- 
ticularly glad that, on his own initiative, he had 
taken the exact course which would put him in one 
of the most dangerous branches of the service. 

"I would not have stopped him if I could," 
added Mr. Roosevelt; ^'and I could not have 
stopped him if I would. The more American boys 
from nineteen to twenty-one join the army the 
.better it is for the country. To take them out 
of our civil life entails the smallest economic loss 
lupon the Nation, and because of their elasticity 
jand powers of recuperation they are its greatest 
military asset." 

Nevertheless, if Roosevelt could have given him- 



3o6 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

self and saved Quentin he would gladly have done 
so. Just before Roosevelt's death Mr. Stephane 
Lauzanne — the editor of the Paris Matin^ then in 
this country^ — ^was returning to Paris; he asked 
Roosevelt for a message to take back to his coun- 
trymen. This was Roosevelt's response: 

"I have no message for France; I have already 
given her the best I had. But if, over there, they 
speak of me, tell them that my only regret is that 
I could not give myself." 

One of my pleasantest recollections of Roosevelt 
is connected with this gentle side of his character. 
Preceding and during the Progressive campaign of 
19 1 2 he used to lunch weekly with his editorial 
colleagues at the National Arts Club in Gramercy 
Park. There were usually several guests. On a 
certain one of these luncheon days there were to be 
two distinguished'foreign diplomats as the guests of 
honour, the ambassadors from Brazil and Argen- 
tina, and I had gone around from our office, a few 
blocks away, to the club just ahead of Mr. Roose- 
velt, to make sure that all the arrangements were 
complete. We did not often have foreign ambassa- 
dors at our table and I felt a desire, which house- 
wives who read these lines will understand, to see 
that the flowers and napery and spoons and forks 
were properly arranged. 



PERSONAL QUALITIES 307 

As I approached the club I saw a lady standing 
on the sidewalk stooping over to talk to a small 
boy about ten years old, who was crying bitterly. 
The boy was sobbing so convulsively that it was 
impossible to understand what he was saying; 
bat on stopping to see if I could be of any assistance 
the lady, seeing that the boy was being attended 
to, went on her way. I managed to extract from 
the little, quivering figure the information that 
he was lost. His father was a Hungarian miner 
from Pennsylvania; that family had arrived that 
morning in New York on their way back to Hun- 
gary; the ship was to sail the next day; he had just 
stepped out of the house where they were stopping 
to see the street sights of the great, strange city. 
Further details were blotted out by another burst 
of weeping. 

Just then Mr. Roosevelt came sailing around 
the corner of the iron palings of Gramercy Park, 
busily talking with his companion, General F. V. 
Greene, who, like Roosevelt, had been a police 
commissioner. He stopped and asked what was 
the matter. I told him what I had learned, and 
he said, half to the boy and half to General Greene : 

''We'll soon fix this. Let me see, General, 
isn't there a precinct station-house in Twenty- 
Second Street near Second Avenue? We'll take 



3o8 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

him there and they will send out a general alarm 
for his father and mother/' 

The little derelict stopped his weeping — he 
seemed to feel an instinctive confidence in the 
power of this strange man to do things — and we 
all started off to the police station half a mile 
away. Mr. Roosevelt hardly spoke to the boy, 
who plodded along contentedly beside him, while 
he continued his discussion with General Greene 
on, I think, some military subject. 

When we got to the precinct station the lieuten- 
ant or sergeant in charge recognized the two 
former police commissioners. Mr. Roosevelt told 
him the facts, gave the boy a piece of silver to get 
some luncheon and, telling the little fellow that 
the police would find his mother and father before 
long, left him perfectly comfortable and contented. 
We returned to the club half an hour late, but 
the diplomatic guests were repaid for their delay 
by their interest in the story of the incident which 
I related as our excuse. 

Late in the afternoon I called up the police 
station and found that through the medium of a 
general alarm, or some such police procedure, the 
frightened boy and the terrified parents had been 
happily brought together. 

This little incident is a simple one but I think 



PERSONAL QUALITIES 309 

it worth telling because it shows that Roosevelt 
was more interested in helping a small boy in 
trouble — not sending someone else as he might 
easily have done but doing it himself — than he 
was in greeting the ambassadors of two great 
foreign countries to which he was about to make 
an important visit. For he was then arranging 
his expedition to South America and his exploration 
of the Brazilian jungle. He had a warm-hearted 
human sympathy and a gentle, almost woman-like 
kind of tenderness of which thousands who ad- 
mired his strenuous life knew nothing. 

Roosevelt was not interested in dogmatic or 
metaphysical theology. Indeed, I doubt if he 
cared for metaphysics of any kind; I am inclined 
to think he would have sympathized with the wit 
who once said that the only use for metaphysics 
is to furnish arguments for the abolition of meta- 
physics; I am sure he would have agreed with 
Emerson that "metaphysics Is dangerous as a 
single pursuit; . . . the inward analysis must 
be corrected by rough experience. Metaphysics 
must be perpetually reinforced by life; must be 
the observations of a working man on working 
men." But although not of the metaphysical 
temperament he was deeply interested in a phi- 
losophy of life and in the morals and ethics that 



310 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

underlie the finest, most beautiful, and most 
worth-while human relationships. I do not know 
whether he was a Platonist or an Aristotelian, 
a Trinitarian or a Unitarian, a Pantheist or a 
Deist, but I do know that he believed that there 
are axiomatic laws of virtue and goodness which 
we do not need to argue about any more than we 
do about the law of gravitation. 

One of the most complete and satisfying creeds 
that was ever written is that of the Prophet Micah : 
*'0 man, what doth the Lord require of thee but 
to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with 
thy God?" Not long after Roosevelt's death, 
his sister, Mrs. Douglas Robinson, told me 
that this verse from the Book of Micah was his 
favourite. And a letter was published last Febru- 
ary by the General Secretary of the New York 
Bible Society saying that when he asked Roosevelt 
in the summer of 1917 to send through that so- 
ciety a message to the American troops abroad, 
the Colonel chose Micah's text as his message, 
which he wrote out in his own hand with this 
comment : 

Do justice: and therefore fight valiantly against the armies 
of Germany and Turkey; for these nations, in this crisis, stand 
for the reign of Moloch and Beelzebub on this earth. 

Love Mercy: treat prisoners well; succoi'^ ^ the wounded; 



PERSONAL QUALITIES 311 

treat every woman as if she were your sister; care for the little 
children, and be tender with the old and helpless. 

Theodore Roosevelt's personality was an un- 
surpassed combination of the unterrified fighter 
of what he believed to be the worst, and the tender- 
hearted lover of what he believed to be the best 
in mankind. Whether he loved or hated, talked 
or read, worked or played he did it with zest and 
eagerness. The words of William James may well 
be applied to such a life: 

Wherever a process of life communicates an eagerness to 
him who lives it, there the life becomes genuinely significant. 
Sometimes the eagerness is more knit up with the motor 
activities, sometimes with the imagination, sometimes with 
reflective thought. But wherever it is found, there is the 
zest, the tingle, the excitement of reality; and there is "im- 
portance" in the only real and positive sense in which im- 
portance ever anywhere can be. 



CHAPTER IX 
THE END 

IF THEODORE ROOSEVELT could be asked 
what phase of his many-sided Hfe seems to him 
the most important and gives him the most 
satisfaction, I am sure that he would say instantly 
that he wishes to be remembered most as the 
founder and head of a family. It was therefore 
peculiarly suitable that his funeral should have 
been that of a husband and a father rather than 
that of a statesman and a military hero. 

He died on January 6, 1919. The services in his 
memory at the little Episcopal church in Oyster 
Bay, on Wednesday, January 8, were simple, 
unpretentious, and genuine, but they were pro- 
foundly impressive. There was no pomp, no cere- 
mony. Four or five hundred of his personal friends 
gathered in the little edifice where he had been 
wont to worship. His son. Captain Archie Roose- 
velt — in his uniform and with his arm and hand 
still bound in the splint which was aiding to cure 
the serious wound he received in France — and 
his nephew, Theodore Douglas Robinson, met the 
friends as they entered, and aided in showing them 

to seats. 

312 



THE END 313 

In accordance with the Hturgy of the Episcopal 
Church, the coffin, draped in an American flag, 
was borne up the aisle preceded by the rector, 
Dr. Talmage, and followed by the immediate 
members of the family and of the household. The 
ceremony consisted simply of the reading of the 
burial service. There was no music. But the 
rector read as a part of the service what is believed 
to have been one of Mr. Roosevelt's favourite 
hymns: "How Firm a Foundation, Ye Saints of 
the Lord." There was no eulogy, no address. 
But at the close of the service the rector stepped 
forward to the head of the casket, and, instead of 
pronouncing in the usual words the beautiful 
benediction which will be found at the end of the 
Penitential Office for Ash Wednesday, recited 
it as follows : 

Theodore, the Lord bless thee, and keep thee. The Lord 
make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. 
The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee 
peace, both now and evermore. Amen. 

After the brief service in the church Roosevelt's 
friends and neighbours followed his body to the 
cemetery, where it now lies. It is a village burial 
ground on a hillside, informal but neatly kept, 
and adorned with the native trees of which Roose- 
ivelt was so fond. His grave lies at the top of 



314 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

the hill, from which there is a charming view of the 
waters of Long Island Sound and of the rolling 
and wooded landscape which makes Oyster Bay 
a particularly beautiful spot. 

There was solemnity during these last tributes, 
but there was no grief. There never was grief in the 
presence of Theodore Roosevelt, and although his 
body was gone there could not be in the presence 
of his spirit. 

^ As I came down the slope from the hilltop where 
his body lies I thought of the requiem and epitaph^ 
by Robert Louis Stevenson : 

Under the wide and starry sky 
Dig the grave and let me lie. 
Glad did I live, and gladly die, 
And I laid me down with a will. 

This be the verse you grave for me: 
*'Here he lies, where he longed to be; 
Home is the sailor, home from the sea, 
And the hunter home from the hill." 

As time goes on Roosevelt's defects — for there 
never was a man of whom it could be more truly 
said that he had the defects of his qualities — ^wili 
more and more sink into the background — his 
virtues and genius as a man and a statesman will 
more and more come forward into the light. Wheth- 
er or not it will be possible at some time to make 
Sagamore Hill — his homestead at Oyster Bay— 



THE END 



315 



a national memorial park I do not know, but 
since his burial there has been a constant stream 
of pilgrims to his hillside grave. This is not a 
little surprising, for Oyster Bay is off the main 
routes of travel and there is nothing about the 
country graveyard that forms his resting place 
to attract the visitor except the memory of the 
man himself. Even after death his magnetic 
spirit still draws people to him. This continuing 
power of his personality is set forth so appropri- 
ately in a poem by his sister Corinne Roosevelt, 
Mrs. Douglas Robinson, that I have asked and 
received her permission to close these pages with it. 

At Sagamore the Chief lies low. 

Above the hill, in circled row 

The whirring airplanes dip and fly — 

A guard of honour from the sky — 
Eagles to guard the Eagle. Woe 
Is on the world. The people go 
With listless footstep, blind and slow; j 

For one is dead — who shall not die 
At Sagamore. 

Oh! Land he loved, at last you know 
The son who served you well below. 

The prophet voice, the visioned eye. 

Hold him in ardent memory, 
For one is gone — who shall not go— 
From Sagamore! 



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